


Trick or Treat

by BleedingCoffee



Category: Eureka (TV)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Biting, Control-Z on the Library of Alexandria, M/M, Vampires, criminal investigation used to write off an obsession with a rival, flashback jitsu will be adequate in post-coital talk to cover the basics, if you're here for plot, lube everywhere, porn chapter brought to you by a High Wind Event and 60mph winds, rivals to working relationship to lovers, the offer of a rimjob, the porn chapter is a choose your own adventure-skip it if you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:22:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 68,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27384877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleedingCoffee/pseuds/BleedingCoffee
Summary: It's Halloween in Eureka and of course that means homework.  Zoe has a school project that she and Pilar utilize to send Jack off on a quest to prove that Nathan Stark is a vampire.
Relationships: Jack Carter/Nathan Stark
Comments: 55
Kudos: 93





	1. The Vampire Hunters

**Author's Note:**

> This was just a little "warm-up" drabble that I was using to jump into an update on Dissolved, and then it got over 10,000 words, turned into porn and then bounced back to tackle mysteries of the universe. It's chaptered because I felt bad about dumping all those words into one massive story. Plus! I get to make up chapter titles that way!!! I hate that! Will it have a nod to actors's filmography? You betcha!
> 
> The Vampire lore is probably wrong and you should definitely say it. Especially since that will cause me to write a fix-it sequel instead of the #gay vampires in space AU.

_Trick or Treat_

  
Chapter 1

**The Vampire Hunters**

* * *

“So what’s your Halloween assignment?” Jack asked as he sipped his coffee and looked at all the notes on the kitchen table and diagrams on the dry erase board on the wall. Pilar and Zoe had been up all night working on this. On a  _ Friday night.  _

Pilar answered, “Find the science behind superstitions of the past.”

Jack nodded. She was super enthusiastic. She always was though _._ He looked to his daughter to determine the normal person's level of joy at having a homework assignment that would take up her weekend. She was writing down notes. _Still._ It was 6am Saturday morning! There had to be coffee involved. He directed his question to Zoe. “ _Find_ it?”

“Yeah, like put forth a genuine hypothesis about the science explanations for everything from ghosts to vampires.” Zoe replied. Their sleep-over had devolved from the homework assignment to binge watching movies to scouring the internet to it suddenly being  _ 6 A.M.  _ They really needed windows in this house! 

“Oh.” Jack smiled. “Those Twilight obsession years paying off I see.”

“Dad.” Zoe warned.

“Right.  _ Never _ supposed to speak of  _ that _ .” Jack said with a half-ass apologetic smile and sat his coffee down on the table, kinda intrigued. “So, it’s sort of... like police work? A cold case?”

“Yup. Want to contribute? Did the big bad US Marshall had to hunt down a vampire once?” Zoe said and grinned. “Is  _ that _ how you got that bite on your neck from when you had that case in Kentucky?”

“Oh do tell.” Pilar said and folded her hands and looked at the Sheriff as a blush crept up his neck to his face. He absentmindedly rubbed his neck, probably the spot where he had a hickey once. 

“OK, point taken.” Jack said as his daughter grinned at him, victoriously. He picked his coffee back up and decided to go to the kitchen to see if he could snag a breakfast item that wasn’t good for his heart; maybe leftover nachos. “Are you supposed to solve the case and find evidence to prove your hypothesis or are you just spit-balling theories?”

“It’s Tesla.” Zoe answered. “I’m surprised they don’t want me to roll a dead body in for autopsy to prove our findings.”

“There is a lot of research out there.” Pilar answered when the Sheriff looked a little worried they were going to be grave robbing for Halloween instead of going to the school dance. Was he eating….leftover nachos for breakfast? Talk about a crime! “It’s an assignment that tests our ability to dig up prior research, determine if it’s a reliable source, put forth our own theory, and _maybe_ get an internship at GD to continue our research.”

“Really?” Jack said with a laugh then deepened his voice. “Where the ‘director of research at the most advanced scientific facility in the world does _ not _ believe in ghosts’?”

“That’s a really spot-on impression of Dr. Stark.” Pilar said and winked at Zoe. Oh this was the juicy love story Eureka needed. Watching, recording and televising Stark and Carter 'arguing’ had become the guilty pleasure they all shamelessly indulged in. After the explosion that damaged half of GD, they feared Stark would take a job elsewhere and leave before this smoldering hot sexual tension could turn into something more. He stayed and took a researcher position, but it only renewed the same boring old love triangle with Allison and Carter. Unless there was a push to tip that triangle over and focus the men on each other, this could go on forever. By men, she meant this oblivious blond man picking dried cold cheese off corn chips for breakfast. This project, for her, was about focusing Sheriff Carter’s baby blues on Stark since the genius had always eye-banged the man without shame since his arrival. Jury was still out on whether or not Stark was doing it as a power move or genuine interest, but at this point Jack Carter needed whatever he could get. If he was out on dates, she and Zoe had more freedom. If Zoe got a another Dad out of this, even better. "Thankfully he's not the director anymore."

“Stark is probably a vampire.” Jack submitted his own hypothesis. “Always in black. Selfish. Doesn’t come out of GD until after dark. Knows way way too much to be only thirty something and have a degree and Nobel Prize  _ in everything _ . Probably immortal, it would take all eternity to master those abs and no idea how he survived that explosion like he did. Plus I can’t see what Allison sees in him, so he probably bit her and has her under some sort of spell.”

Zoe exchanged glances with Pilar. Yeah, her Dad was a  _ little _ obsessed with Nathan Stark. His cop brain only saw it as a ‘because he’s a criminal’ and not because he genuinely enjoyed being around the man. “Actually, we _are_ researching vampires... so, if you want, we’ll add your theory in as something we have to debunk.”

“That will go over well.” Jack said and rolled his eyes. “I’ll see if there is a form in the cabinet in my office for vampirism. There was one for undeading, has to be something for the undead.” 

“I should warn you, however, that I am doing the psychological analysis on the project and Pilar is going to come at it from the physiological perspective.”

“Eww… talk about frightening.” Jack said and made a sour face. “You sound like your Mom.”

“She’s one of my sources.” 

Jack sipped his coffee instead of making a comment about Abby being an expert on blood sucking, narcissistic monsters. He couldn't resist saying something though. “Mmmhmmm. Maybe she should elaborate on that emotional vampirism concept she used to bring up at dinner and then drain us all of any enthusiasm for living past the salad.”

“She said _you_ used that as an excuse to eat carbs, fall asleep on the couch and call her a controlling bitch.” Zoe reminded him. “All because you read about it in her  _ Psychology Today  _ magazine.”

“Is this what you guys talk about at breakfast?” Pilar whispered and got waved off. Clearly Sheriff Carter was being set up. Good! Zoe was on board with her proposal to get Carter and Stark together! She looked over as he kept eating last night's nachos. It was making her sick. He needed someone to take care of him more than just for his ‘cardio needs’ in the bedroom; he needed Dr. Stark to smack him in the head in the morning and make him drink a smoothie. He could save his heart in _so_ many ways. 

“Oh yeah?” Jack said and pointed to his daughter as he munched on semi stale, cheese grease infused nachos. “Emotional vampires are usually narcissists. Controlling. Constantly in your face and talking about their intelligence. Putting you down. Drama Queens. Check, check, check, _check_. Stark  _ is  _ a vampire .”

“So is Allison, if  _ that’s _ the litmus test.” Zoe countered, a little too quickly.

“Hey!” Jack said and Zoe and Pilar both looked at him waiting for him to tell them they were wrong. Ok. So maybe Allison had some flaws, who didn’t? He sipped his coffee instead of commenting.

“Anyhow, psychology has a place in how people react to things and what they create because of it. Why this lore came to be is the real question we’re trying to answer. Human beings don’t change, they need to cope somehow. They were scared of something and used this folktale as a way to stay safe.” Zoe moved back on topic to give her Dad something to mull over. Allison wasn’t that nice to him, he just was blinded by how pretty she was. Stark was pretty too, and her Dad didn’t come away from interactions with him emotionally drained. He actually was more animated when working with the scientist, but he’d have to reach that conclusion himself. Her father was more stubborn than anyone in this town. 

Pilar interjected, “It’s  _ as important _ to find the science that caused vampirism as it is the psychology of the folklore behind it.”

Jack nodded and kept eating. These two were really into this project. Should he be worried about what the other kids were working on? Considering this was Halloween-- _ in Eureka _ ?

“From a fear of the dead to...” Pilar continued her explanation and saw the Sheriff was staring at his breakfast and thinking about something else. So, she said in her most monotone voice, “Repressed sexual desires, highlighted by the orgasmic experience of the vampire bite; the surrender to the abomination, the masochistic, primal erotic act of being bitten and  _ sucked dry _ .” 

Zoe was glad her hand was on her chin so she could cover her mouth to stifle a mortified laugh. Pilar was really pushing the theory that the ‘chemistry’ between her Dad and Stark was sexual tension and not being too subtle about it. Her Dad was ready to call a retreat now. 

“What movies did you guys watch last night?” Jack groaned. He knew the girls were trying to embarrass him out of the room. Jack added, sarcastically. “But I’m glad, you’re dragging Freud into this. Your Mom just _ loves _ him.” 

“People love vampires.” Zoe got them back on track. “It’s not going to be hard to conjure up an image of a vampire in the minds of our audience, causing conflict in our class to keep their heads in the science of it all.”

“We also want to demonstrate how the class can be manipulated by the presentation.” Pilar added. “So, if you are available at 1:00 on Monday, we would love to have you bring your theory about Dr. Stark to our presentation. Maybe even get him to come defend his honor.”

Zoe’s eyeballs couldn’t get any wider as she stared at Pilar. She wasn’t just toeing the line, she was throwing everyone over it. 

“Oh it’s  _ peer reviewed _ .” Jack said. Another weird-ass thing Tesla did. To prep students for the ‘real world’, presentations were peer reviewed. Thank God he didn't grow up here. Zoe, however, thrived on the manipulation of people and she probably chose this topic specifically because of that. 

Zoe just started babbling because she instantly imagined the shitshow that would be a Eureka 'classroom witch trial' if her Dad came for a class visit and found Stark there ready for a few rounds of debate. It would be embarrassing. For her. Everyone would eat it up as her Dad made an ass out of himself and it was broadcast it over the school channel. She changed topic again, so he’d associate that invite with something he hated. “Mom pushed Jung’s psychological analysis that says that it's a universal piece of folklore. Many cultures have vampire stories. It’s found all over the world so either everyone has seen one or they all conjured up the same image to explain away some horrible impulses and desires. Jung likes to focus on the narcissism of the vampire lore.”

“Narcissist...are you  _ sure _ Stark isn’t a vampire? Because that would be one hell of a presentation if you did reveal that he was a vampire at the end of it.” Jack asked and then put his coffee mug on the sink and grabbed his gun belt off the chair. He looked at the clock, blinking because S.A.R.A.H. was implying he was going to be late to work if he kept bothering these kids. “Gotta go. Good luck with your research. I’ll let you know if I see any giant bats that aren’t drones.”

“If you’re going to check mirrors for reflections make sure you use one that is backed with silver not aluminum. Like that antique one in your office!” Pilar called out and got kicked in the shin for pushing this so hard. Whatever. She now wanted this debate as part of their presentation. Talk about extra credit and something the entire school would never forget. Megan Harrington and friends picked the Salem witch trials, ironically enough, and they would definitely be putting on a massive show. Let them try to beat the energy that a Carter-Stark interaction brought to the room. Yeah, she wanted this on so many levels. 

“Oh yeah, that’s right, he’s going to have a problem with silver, garlic and wooden stakes thought the heart.” Jack said and paused at the door. “If he even  _ has _ one of those. Sarah, door.”

Zoe cocked an eyebrow as he left. 

As soon as the door closed, Pilar shook her head. “Does he even realize how obsessed he is with Dr. Stark?”

“Nope.” Zoe couldn't even get his mind off Stark by mentioning Carl Jung who would definitely give him a hard stop into anger towards her Mom. He just kept his eyes on Nathan Stark and she had to admit, it was past time for an intervention.

“Did you show him the picture of Stark dressed as a vampire from the GD Halloween party yet?” Pilar asked and rubbed her hands in glee.

“Do I really want to explain why I have a photo of a shirtless, caped Dr. Stark licking his fangs while Dr. Blake strokes his leather pant leg dressed as Morticia Adams?” Zoe asked.

“Who  _ doesn’t _ have that picture?” Pilar asked. “I’m surprised Halloween hasn’t been rebranded the 'Day to memorialize that sexy vampire costume Dr. Stark wore at that one party, once'.”

“Clearly my Dad.” Zoe said with a sigh. “You realize we’ve set this in motion now. You realize he’s going to start looking for reasons that Nathan Stark is a vampire?”

“Is it really a huge step down from accusing someone of having a ‘worm-holing, time-bending invisibility device that shields you from the mind’?” Pilar asked. 

“You have a point.” Zoe conceded. 

“And it’s not exactly our fault he immediately pointed to the object of his sexual tension and repressed desires and called him a narcissistic mythical creature who sucks _hard._ ”

“He has a type.” Zoe said. 

“Mom’s really pissing you off about Freud huh?”

“You have no idea.” Zoe said with a sigh. She picked up her phone and texted Jo to let her know what she was in for today: Jack Carter, vampire hunter. God help them all.


	2. Vampire Diaries

Hello and welcome to my porn fic with MLA documentation. :) 

Your crash course on John Polidori (the “doctor), Lord Byron and the Shelleys:  [ https://bleedingcoffee42.tumblr.com/post/633884622398373889/northstarfan-ayellowbirds-lavishness ](https://bleedingcoffee42.tumblr.com/post/633884622398373889/northstarfan-ayellowbirds-lavishness)

This blog entry regarding the adaption of The Vampyre into the play ‘Vampire; or, the Bride of the Isles’ (and not just because a sexy semicolon is in the title, but because it puts Lord Ruthven into a kilt)  [ https://www.amdigital.co.uk/about/blog/item/the-transformative-nature-of-vampirism ](https://www.amdigital.co.uk/about/blog/item/the-transformative-nature-of-vampirism)

Which leads us to this visual:  [ https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/actor-ed-quinn-walks-the-runway-at-the-johnnie-walker-news-photo/72171165 ](https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/actor-ed-quinn-walks-the-runway-at-the-johnnie-walker-news-photo/72171165)

Listen....when research gives you the lemons you gather them up and write lemons. Or just throw those lemons at each other until they connect some dots that FINALLY allow the use of that picture in a fic. You guys have been with me long enough to know how I am. 

* * *

_ Trick or Treat _

Chapter 2

**Vampire Diaries**

* * *

Jack spent his morning having a hard time not thinking about Zoe’s vampire project. He pecked away at his computer occasionally to make it look like he was working, but he was really looking up stuff about vampires. What should have been a quick browse through a Wikipedia article ended up sending him down the rabbit hole of research for almost four hours. 

Unfortunately he started taking notes to keep all his ideas in one place, which made it obvious he was not filing reports. So when he went to the bathroom, Jo checked them out. He came out of the bathroom and saw his Deputy sitting on his desk, waving his notebook at him. “Do you understand privacy?”

“Do you understand how bad you have it for Stark, or am I just supposed to write off this outline for your homoerotic vampire novel as police work?” Jo asked and Carter grabbed his notes back. 

“Give me that!” Jack said and smacked her on the top of the head with the notepad. “I don’t have a  _ thing _ for Stark. I however have an explanation for how Stark has this whole damned town groveling at his feet.”

Jo rolled her eyes. As much as she liked an enemies-to-lovers story, this one could hurry the hell up to the lovers portion and really save her some headaches. “So, um, your theory is that Stark is a vampire, not a genius, and that’s why this town listens to him?”

“Yes.” Jack said triumphantly. “Like Dracula in his castle, feeding on the peasants for his own life-line.”

“Nothing to do with how he looks, his accomplishments and the fact that he was everyone’s boss?” Jo asked. “Even after he got fired for blowing up the precious Artifact, stepped down, and started up his private research again--- he’s still who everyone looks to as the guy who has all the answers. Notably,  _ you _ .”

“It would explain things.” Jack said and put his notepad down and put his hands on his hips. 

“What things?” Jo asked. “How he’s smarter than anyone else? Looks good in black? Seems to have you fixated on him? Did he turn into a bat and fly out of Section 5 to not die in that Artifact explosion?”

“If he was undead, he could have a lot of time to learn things.” Jack read as he went through his notes. “It would also be a great explanation for  _ how _ he survived the Artifact explosion that killed Kim and destroyed a portion of heavily reinforced Section 5. Ya know, immortal and all.”

“Wow.” Jo said and jumped off the desk, walked to the closet, pulled out a broom, cracked it over her thigh and held the newly made wooden stake over her head. “You sold me. Let’s impale him, right now!”

“Jo.” Jack looked at his notes and frowned. She wasn’t even giving this a chance and he had way more ludacris theories over the last year that proved to be true. 

“Unless it’s really just  _ you _ who wants to impale him on  _ your wood _ .” Jo watched his eyes snap up at her and a blush tinge his cheeks. The denial in this one was so strong.

“I don’t  _ like _ that man.” Jack rolled his eyes. “As a human being and certainly not as a love interest!”

“It’s really hard to see that past your obsession with him.” Jo then tossed her wooden stake on his desk. “You talk about him all the time.”

“I do not!”

“You are in a better mood when you work with him too.” Jo reminded him.

“I am a competitive person who likes being right!” Jack snapped. “Yes, I like proving him wrong!”

“OK, so you don’t have the hots for him, but you’re still here making notes about him  _ sucking  _ blood.” Jo asked. “Come on Carter, stop dragging your feet or make something of it. Man up!”

“Fine.” Jack threw his notepad in the drawer. He needed to buy her support somehow and she knew it. Her eyes lit up. “I’ll get us coffee and I’ll get to work on paperwork.”

“What?” Jo feigned shock. Of course he didn't think she was hinting he should go ask Nathan out. Right over his head, as usual. “Doing _ police work _ ? At  _ your desk _ ? On  _ the clock _ !? Maybe I called off the witch hunt too soon.”

“Leave my notes alone. i don't want to come back to stick figure porn drawn in the margins.” Jack said and headed for the door. “So much for celebrating Halloween around here.”

“What kind of Trick or Treat are you expecting when you knock on  _ his _ door?” Jo called out and Jack looked over his shoulder at her and narrowed his eyes. “And what’s your costume going to be? Bad  _ bad  _ cop?”

Jack growled as she started doing a little dance and unbuttoning her shirt as she hummed some cheesy porno theme, implying he was going to be some bachelorette party stripper. _For Nathan Stark_. What the hell was wrong with everyone? “Forget it. I won’t save you when you end up at Dracula’s castle and you run out of silver bullets.”

“You think  _ I’m _ going to run out of ammunition?” Jo asked and laughed at him. He walked out and went across the street for coffee, angrily rolling down his sleeves and refastening the cuffs as he went. She went over to the window for a better look and noticed Stark’s car was there, clearly he was in town for lunch. She texted Zoe, ‘ _ He’s been making Vampire!Stark notes all morning. ALL MORNING. This shit better end this weekend.’ _

  
  


* * *

He’d been making Vampire Stark notes all morning.  _ All damned morning _ ! He had to get this stupid idea out of his head now, he had real work to get done before the next scientific disaster hit Eureka. Why this idea was so hard to get out of his head was just infuriating though, especially since everyone kept implying it was because he was attracted to Stark. Yeah, the guy was beautiful, but his polar opposite in every way; especially on the scale of good and evil. Everyone should want better for him. 

He opened the door, walked into Cafe Diem and looked over at the counter. Stark was there, sitting down and, he assumed, was waiting on a to-go bag. He had been so wrapped up in this ‘theory’ that he missed the fact that the guy’s BMW was parked outside and that it was somehow lunchtime already. 

“What can I get for you, Sheriff?” Vincent asked.

Jack went to the counter and sat down next to Stark. Why let an opportunity go to waste? He could go back to Jo with some coffee and  _ facts . _ “Vinspresso and whatever fancy coffee Jo would like, Gunmetal Latte with cream or whatever it’s called.”

Nathan looked over at Carter, surprised he would sit beside him when it was early for lunch and there were a ton of extra seats. “Something I can help you with, Sheriff?”

“No.” Jack smiled, innocently. “Why do you ask?”

“You usually don’t choose to sit at my table during lunch.” Nathan drawled as if this was some kind of high school ritual. “Makes me think you need something from me.”

“Being Sheriffy.” Jack said and played with a napkin that was left on the counter “Checking in with the townsfolk. Making sure it’s a calm, peaceful Halloween. Nothing’s blown up.” 

Nathan smiled. “Yet.”

“Any plans for Halloween?” Jack asked, an upbeat voice and neutral question meant to show he was just being Sheriffy. “Going out with Ally and Kevin?”

“You trying to figure out if she’s free tonight?” Nathan asked, curiously. “Or if I am?”

“No, just curious if trick or treating happens around here.” Jack said. “I haven’t quite been here a year. Just  _ seems _ like forever.”

“To you and me both.” Nathan said and Carter released that might have been an insult and looked at him with a pout. “To answer your question, which could be answered by anyone in town as well as the town Charter that you should have memorized, yes --there is trick-or-treating. Just probably not at your house because it’s a former interrogation chamber and has radioactive poison ivy on the chain link fence.”

“I’m going to tell S.A.R.A.H. you said that.” Jack smirked and made a mental note to ask his house if that poison ivy had a half life he should be aware of.

Vince brought the coffees over. “Anything else, Sheriff?”

Jack stared at the to-go cups and realized he had gotten nothing from this conversation. He picked up his cup and took a long slip, as if he was testing it before committing to taking it with him. They both looked at him like he was unhinged; Vince was offended and Nathan just looked at him like he was a moron. So...actually it was just how they normally looked at him. He smacked his lips and nodded, as if he just had some fine wine. Stark was _right here_! He had to try something! Jo would call him a coward if he didn’t at least try to prove his theory and he sure as hell wasn’t going to prove hers. What could he do to give credibility to his theory?

“Anything else?” Vince repeated.

“Can I get that on a silver platter?” Jack asked as he pointed to Jo’s latte, and Vince laughed. Jack cleared his throat. “I’m serious. Do you have a real silver platter back there?”

“Well….yes.” Vince said and looked to Stark who just shrugged. “It’s for special occasions.”

“Would delivering a  _ special  _ coffee to my  _ favorite _ Deputy be a  _ special _ enough occasion to allow me to borrow that for a little while?” Jack asked. Both men immediately nodded, understanding that he had somehow fucked up and was doing this as a way to apologize. Oh, little did they know that Jo was going to laugh her ass off at this because of how fucking brilliant he was at improvising. 

“Wow.  _ What  _ did you do?” Nathan asked.

“Implied that she’d run out of ammunition.” Jack answered, honestly. Both Nathan and Vincent cringed.

“You’re an idiot.” Nathan said as Vince pulled a platter out from under the counter and slid it across to the Sheriff. Carter immediately grabbed it and reflected sunlight in his face. He covered his eyes with his hand and then noticed Carter was trying to look at himself in it. Or  _ them _ ? “You do understand that there is a camera on your phone right? For selfies, if you’re truly trying to get a picture of us together for  _ entertainment purposes _ .”

Jack could see Stark in the platter, which didn’t disprove he was a vampire. It just meant he needed to determine if this was real silver. However, _that_ didn’t help explain why he was looking at himself in the plate with Stark. Or why Stark was implying he was going to use it for masturbation material. “There’s a betting pool here.”

“I’m aware.” Nathan said.

“You and I have the best odds of becoming a couple.”

“Are you asking me out?” Nathan asked. “Because Vincent is beginning to get a little anxious about the attention you’re showering on me and I think he may not have the winning bet. Perhaps….Lupo does? Is that how you plan to apologize? By ruining the betting pool? How unethical, Sheriff. How _cruel_ to toy with my heart.”

“No!” The silver platter was yanked from his hands as Vincent glared at him for attempting to ruin their precious illegal gambling pool. He glared at Stark, but there was amusement in his eyes even though he was trying to look hurt. His eyes...looked more blue today. Why did they always change color to match his shirt? He looked back at Vincent to stop himself from staring at Stark’s eyes and adding more fuel to this funeral pyre he was building around himself.

“Better not.” Vince growled then covered the side of his face with the platter so only Jack could see him whisper, ‘Until tomorrow.’

Jack frowned. He was running out of ways to test Stark to see if he was a vampire. He was going to have to drop off some donations at the church and get some holy water or a crucifix or something. What else was a test for vampires!? Why didn’t he watch those damned movies with Zoe?

“Dr. Stark, your order’s ready.” Vincent put the bag on the counter and waited. Carter was really acting odd and he wondered if Jo cheated and put him up to this today. “Honey coriander glazed salmon and lemon basil roasted green beans.”

Jack looked at the menu on the wall. Salmon? Was it salmon day? No! It was Saturday. Today was Italian themed for the Saturday night date crowd! It was chicken parmesan day! 

“Thanks, Vince.” Nathan stood up. “As much as I hate to leave this stimulating conversation, Sheriff, time to get back to work.”

“You don’t like Italian?” Jack asked. He never remembered Stark refusing the special. Even when it was something like Caribou.  _ Chicken Parmesan _ ? Made _ by Vincent _ ? Hell, even he chose that instead of a burger. 

“I didn’t say I have a problem with Italian food, I just know Vincent goes heavy on the garlic and I have several meetings today I don’t want to…” Nathan looked at Carter as his eyes lit up. “Is this my latest crime against humanity, Sheriff? Or are you planning to ask me out and trying to figure out the best meal to make. I’m sure S.A.R.A.H. knows my favorites, Fargo did program her.”

“Nah, trying to figure out if you’re a vampire.” Jack said, getting straight to the point, just because he was tired of Stark announcing to all of Cafe Diem he was failing to ask him out properly. He watched his reaction: just amusement. Mocking amusement, as always. Ok, maybe he took this too far and should stop before he made more of an ass out of himself.

“Oh.” Nathan said and licked his lips. “Trying to hint at what I should wear for Halloween? Found  _ that _ picture from the GD Halloween party, did you?”

“The  _ what?”  _ Jack asked. 

“Yeah, guess you still have some research to do.” Nathan said and winked, took his salmon special and left. "If you'll excuse me, I have to get back to mine."

Jack watched him leave and couldn't help but feel like it was some kind of brush off. Before Jack could turn around and ask about the picture, Vincent delivered. Delivered it in the form of a laminated copy of a photo of Stark as a vampire: abs, teeth and all. He was speechless. Fucking hell that man looked good in anything! Was this...a placemat? Did people really eat off those abs?

“It was a sight to be seen.” VIncent said and saw the Sheriff swallow hard. He knew the other man could say that was about what  _ Allison _ was wearing, but they all knew it was about the sexy vampire she was clinging to. “And they hit the punch bowl hard and came here wasted. Probably the last happy night they had together before he left for D.C.”

Jack glanced out the window as the BMW pulled away. Did Nathan want him to see that picture of Allison draped on him or was he showing off something else? Like that massive bulge in the leather pants? 

“Leather pants don’t leave too much to the imagination, do they?” Vince asked and Carter looked back at him confused. “Overachiever in everything, that one.”

Yup. On that note, he was going back to the office and reconsidering his decisions today. “Well, he is a huge dick. It’s not much of a surprise. Thanks for the coffee. Can I have the platter?”

“No.” Vincent said and put it back under the counter and snatched the photo back as well. 

* * *

“I mean, the silver platter was clever.” Jo said as they walked to Taggart’s house. “I will give you that.”

“Except it wasn’t real silver because scientists made pseudo-silver at some point to anticipate a change from the Gold Standard to Silver Standard.” Jack put his hands in his pockets. Stupid town. “I thought that all happened in the last century.”

“Nope. FDR had to do it in the 30s.” Jo informed him. “Didn’t you learn anything in school?”

“I am pretty sure that was glossed over in favor of the great depression and war.” Jack said as they reached Taggart’s porch and he hesitated ringing the doorbell. “Just like you glossed over why I’d ask a veterinarian about vampires. Or how you know about fake silver platters and what backs US currency.”

“This town makes you aware of many things. Shit didn't just start the day you arrived, Carter. It may have grown exponetially, but it has been going on for years. Maybe you should catch up on old case files when we get back to work." Jo said and hit the doorbell. 

"That's fair." Jack said and gave her a look. "And Taggart? Are we here so you can see him?"

"Tag is very interested in mythical creatures.” Jo explained. “Jersey Devil…”

“Pretty sure Stark’s from California.”

“The Chupacabra.” Jo continued.

“Sucking goats of blood? This is more about him…” Jack heard the locks unlock and paused not wanting to have Taggart pop into their conversation at mid sentence.

“Sucking  _ cock _ ?” Jo asked right before Taggart opened the door. Jack turned red. 

“Sheriff!” Taggart said, excited for visitors then looked at Jo and softly said. “Jo.”

“Tag. Carter wants to learn about vampires. He thinks he's found one.” Jo elbowed her boss. If anyone was going to get on board with his theory, it was Taggart. 

“Oh?” Taggart gasped. “Who? Is it Larry?”

“What? No.” Jack said. “Stark.”

“Oh.” Taggart said and smiled. “Well, can’t say I haven’t imagined him sucking me dry after that Halloween party.”

“Yeah, this was a bad idea.” Jack said and turned to leave. Jo grabbed his arm, tightly, and stopped him. 

“Well, he is unnaturally talented and beautiful. Body of a God, might as well be one. Imagine hitting the genetic lottery on everything.” Taggart said and leaned against the door jam. He looked up at the sky dreamily. 

“Except personality and morals.” Jack rolled his eyes. 

“That’s not genetic.” Jo squeezed his arm. “And you really need to ask yourself why you focus on that so much.”

“Ok, Taggart?” Jack said. “Can you give me the quick rundown on what to look for when hunting for vampires or some advice to test my theory?”

“Come in!” Taggart said, giddily.

“I’m going to regret this.” Jack said as Jo pulled him into Taggart’s lair. She walked him into the living room which was covered in artifacts and Australia memorabilia. Immediately upon entering the room, Taggart opened his mouth to start his infodump. “I don’t need ancient history, I just need something to test Stark for vampirism.”

Taggart nodded. OK, fast forward past all the good stuff. Fine. “Vampires were not generally thought of as attractive until the early 1800s when John Polidori wrote _The Vampyre_ in the contest with Lord Byron, Mary and Percy Shelly for the best scary story during their summer orgy at Villa Diodati.”

“Oh...I knew this. That’s where Frankenstein came from.” Jack said and then winced and shook his head. “I didn’t realize that was really the first book about them or the way that it came about. There was a Victorian era Woodstock?”

“Not surprising he made them hot considering the crowd he was in and what they were always doing. Lord Byron the drama queen. Mary ‘I lost my virginity on my mother’s grave’ Shelly.” Jo said.

“Why am I only now learning all this stuff about you?” Jack asked his Deputy. “You have such weird niche knowledge.”

“Doesn’t everyone know that Mary Shelly fucked on her mom’s grave and Lord Byron slept with possibly more people than Percy Shelly?” Jo asked. Jack shook his head. “Really?”

“It’s probably more of a Eureka thing because of Ada Lovelace.” Taggart said.

"What?" Jack asked and Jo shoved him into the couch and sat down next to him. Oh he was on board for the Taggart Tangent Train now.

“And ‘The Vampyre’ was definitely about Lord Byron who did not treat Dr. Polidori well." Taggart said and nodded approvingly. "Ah, the writer, able to get sweet sweet revenge. Until someone steals your work, publishes it without permission and credits it to the man you called a bloodsucking aristocrat.”

“Ok, let’s save that story for later.” Jack said. He had already gone thru a ton of information that wasn’t relevant this morning. He needed direct answers and, in hindsight, he should have realized he wasn’t getting them here. “Back to the Vampire stuff. So this doctor guy just made vampire’s hot? He didn’t create the lore? So the folklore wasn’t really new?”

“Polidori was a doctor who was ‘attending’ to Lord Byron at the time.” Taggart said.

“As in ‘playing doctor’?”

“No. He was a real doctor. A prodigy really. Got his MD at 19 for writing a thesis on sleepwalking.” Taggart said.

“So, Stark?” Jack asked and he got hit by Jo. “What!”

“Can you please focus on someone other than him for a minute?” Jo said and pointed at Taggart who was now in story mode, his hand resting on a fireplace mantle and staring off into the kitchen.

“The friends gathered together and read the  _ Fantasmagoriana  _ together. It’s a German collection of ghost stories and then it was suggested they write their own scary stories. And thus, history made.” Taggart said. “A meeting of the minds and bodies. Admirable. Similar to the foundation of Eureka."

“Now Eureka came to be because of an orgy?” Jack asked and got hit. “ _What_?”

“You need to get laid.” Jo hissed. “Stop focusing on the sex!”

“That’s all he’s talked about!” Jack whispered back.

“Polidori's poem was a game changer. He made the vampires attractive instead of bloated corpses.” Taggart said and snapped out of his ‘dreamy state’ and looked back at the two on the couch. 

“Great public relations scheme.” Jack noted. “So, where are you going with this? I need to know how I test Stark to see if he’s a vampire.”

“Let him bite you.” Taggart said, sultry and with a dreamy look in his eyes. “For science. For pleasure. Who cares?”

“Me.” Jack stood up. “And this is a waste of time. As always.”

Taggart tried to save the lecture, but he really didn’t know what the Sheriff was asking about. “Vampire lore was said to originate as a reason a body pumps or swells…”

“That’s not going to help him keep his mind off sex…”Jo said and Jack frowned at her. 

“During decomposition.” Taggart continued. “However that doesn’t explain eons of fear and stories of blood sucking creatures feeding on the living."

"Anything that does?" Jack asked. "Maybe something that disproves it?"

"Math." Taggart said simply. "If everyone that was bit turned into a vampire, with the rate of feeding required for that species, many more people would be vampires.”

“That could just mean it's a conscious decision to make someone a vampire. Just like preparing ground beef to make a burger or meatloaf.” Jack said and frowned. Taggart wasn’t giving him information he needed but it did give him an idea. If you wanted to keep anyone alive with you forever it would be someone you loved and not just food you loved. Perhaps he was asking the wrong person. Perhaps he should ask the woman who married Stark.

"What?" It was Jo's turn to be stumped. She saw where he was going with that but maybe he just needed to go get some lunch instead of figure out why he craved meat so bad while he was discussing Nathan Stark.

“Maybe.” Taggart said. “I have tried to hunt them, but they are elusive creatures. All I have is myth and speculation. I do believe they exist. I also believe, as humans, they have an elaborate network to keep their existence a secret. After being hunted for so long, if they survived, they would be wise to human nature or be extinct.”

“This was no help at all.” Jack said and walked to the door. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Taggart replied, cheerily.

“Glad to know about the orgies that created some iconic books though.” Jack said. “They’re hope for my hippie sister to make something with her life after all.”

“Anytime.” Taggart grinned and gave Jo a thumbs up.

Jack realized Jo was probably going to stay for a ‘lunch break’ and chose to just leave them to it. At least someone would get something out of Taggart and he suspected she was just dragging him here to make a point about how he was probably the only person left sexually frustrated in Eureka and how he should just make a move on everyone’s favorite genius.

Except that he didn’t have a thing for Nathan Stark.

“Ok, well I have another stop before I head back to the office to do paperwork. Catch up with you later.” Jack said and left without looking at what smirks and looks those two were giving each other. Next stop, Tesla.

* * *

“Dad.” Zoe said as she raced over to her father standing at the door. “What are you doing here?”

“Not arresting anyone and not ruining the dance by chaperoning it.” Jack said and pointed over at Allison. “Thought I’d check in with Ally and see if she had plans tonight. I kinda miss trick-or-treating with a kid.”

“That's because you missed every holiday with me.” She reminded him. “And that doesn’t mean I want you to start making up for it now.”

“Thanks kid.” Jack said and looked around at the decorations being set up for the school dance. Kids might go trick or treating from here or just stay and hopefully not recreate the Byron/Shelly/Polidori orgy that created the literary nightmare fuel for the last two centuries. “How’s your project going?”

“Great.” She said. “Any chance that you’re going to bring Dr. Stark to school for show-and-tell on Monday?”

“Nope.” Jack said. “Already asked him if he was a vampire and Vincent followed up by showing photos. Then Taggart and Jo followed that up with a story about horny poets and how Frankenstein was made.”

“Oh?” Zoe asked. 

“I worry about this town sometimes.” Jack admitted. “But sorry to disappoint you, I’m pretty sure there won’t be a dramatic half naked vampire defending his honor in your class come Monday.”

“Weekend isn't over yet.” She gave him a playful punch to the shoulder. “I have faith in you.”

“Coming through!” came the shout from behind them.

Jack shook his head and she shoved him out of the way to make room for her boyfriend, Lucas, hauling in some atrocious statue. “So what’s hair boy up to?”

“He made that in Art class.” Zoe said proudly. “He’s been studying under Dr. Dactlycos.”

The statue looked like it was a pumpkin head medusa, but he wasn’t going to ask what it was. He had other problems today and his daughter’s boyfriend’s imagination was not one of them. In fact, he was glad to see he was normal and he didn’t have to worry about him recreating the  _ Fantorgasm _ or whatever that book was called. Why did Eureka ruin everything for him? Now he couldn't watch Dracula or Frankenstein without thinking about horny authors. 

“I’m going to go help him.” She said and didn’t give her Dad a chance to protest. “Good luck!”. 

She scampered away, clearly excited about the ‘masterpiece’ that was being unveiled for the school dance. He made his way over to Allison who was working with Kevin on decorations. “Hey, Archimedes.”

“Tuesday.” Kevin greeeted.

Jack nodded, accepting that as their formal greeting. “Allison.”

“Oh, don’t tell me someone did something.” Allison groaned as she backed off a step ladder. “I just want a day off.”

“So Director of GD continues to be a gift that just keeps giving then?” Jack asked and Kevin handed him a candy apple. 

“I know why Nathan seems so much more relaxed now, This job…” She said and stopped herself. Venting to Carter wasn’t going to save her stress, more than likely he’d try to help her. “It’s definitely keeping me busy. I’m going to enjoy the time off tonight with my son.”

Jack wondered if that was a hint that she was not interested in him attempting to hit on her. He respected that. Things had been at a standstill with them since Stark’s accident, she was trying to figure out her job and her ex-husband and he was brushed aside for later. “Well, I’ll try to keep things quiet in town.”

“That worked so well _last time_.” Allison said with an eye roll. “A Congressman got kidnapped and almost cut up for alien autopsy.”

Jack deflated as she mentioned that PX-319 fiasco from last year that had nothing to do with him except that he had saved everyone. He couldn’t help but remember that moment this morning when Zoe pointed out Allison could be a drain on his energy too. “Yeah, well, hopefully nobody illegal downloads movies for the party tonight. Although this gym has had its own fun Eureka moments. Ghost Walter. Nanobot Stark army. You and me kissing to make your ex-husband jealous.” 

Allison smiled at him as he looked at her with that soft puppy dog look he got when he reaching out to see if this might be the time to make something of their flirting. “It was a nice kiss.”

Jack felt warm again, the energy coming back.

“Although, in light of recent events, I wonder who you were trying to make him jealous  _ of _ .” Allison grinned and crossed her arms.

“Oh.” Jack said as he looked at that coy smile. He felt his energy level drop again. Like a damned car running out of gas and having to coast to the side of the road. He was being too sensitive about this. “You, uh, heard about lunch.”

“He’s not a fan of Italian but I could give you some pointers about his favorites.” She said and then smirked. “Unless you’re asking for permission to date my ex?”

Jack sighed. Of course Vincent left out the part about him accusing Stark of being a vampire and just let the rumors fly about how poorly he executed his ‘attempt to ask him out’. Whatever. He chose to straighten out the record. “Actually, I didn’t ask him out. I asked him to  _ out himself _ …”

“Oh.” Ally laughed and slapped Jack’s arm. “Nathan's been out as bisexual since he was old enough to experience sexual attraction. Jack, he’s open to a relationship with a man. And he’s always had a thing for blonds.”

Jack huffed. He hated this town. “I asked him to out himself _as a vampire_.”

And Allison paled and let her hand fall from Jack’s arm. She reached out for Kevin’s hand and cleared her throat to try and cover her shock. “Um...you mean from the Halloween party?”

Jack’s gut instinct kicked in and kicked him repeatedly in the gut. That was not a reaction of someone who was embarrassed by a costume she wore to a party or how thirsty she looked clinging to her husband’s leg. _Shit._ Something was up with Stark. “Yeah. Just heard rumors, ya know? Had to see it to believe it. You, I mean. As Morticia.”

“Yeah.” Allison laughed, and heard how awkward it was herself. 

“Figured I’d tell you I have a suit I could pass off as a Gomez costume if you wanted company tonight…” Jack said and could feel the awkwardness of this conversation just sucking the air out of his mouth. Good thing he had established himself as this awkward mess around her and could play off stepping right into a pile of 'something' that proved he might be right about Stark. “If you wanted to revisit that costume?”

“Sorry, the dress got ripped…” She blushed as she said that.

“OK. This got super awkward, even by our standards.” Jack said, bouncing back to his usual chipper self. He started backing away, just like he always did, bowing out so Allison could have her space. Space that she rarely invited him into. He needed to go, anyway. This was something he was going to have to sit down and figure out by himself. “Stop by the office if you want, tonight. I picked up candy to give out. I’d love to see Kev’s costume.“

And just like that he was asking himself how he was going to handle a vampire situation. He hated this town.


	3. Interview with a Vampire

_ Trick or Treat _

Chapter 3

**Interview with a Vampire**

* * *

Jo was disappointed when he told her he was dropping his investigation, but delighted to hear she had the night off. That left Jack to do some research in peace at home where he knew a pile of already assembled research was waiting for him. In addition to Zoe’s project, S.A.R.A.H. had access to a lot of information and could help him out by working in the background if he needed it. First question was, “S.A.R.A.H.? Were Stark’s vitals normal when he was here during that lockdown situation?”

_ “Oh? Dr. Stark did seem a little excited when he first arrived. Perhaps because he felt like it was a personal invite to see you on your day off?” _

The half-moan way she said ‘Stark’ in her girly Fargo voice was making him question his decision to use her as a source. “ _Or_ he got an emergency text, rushed here, and was expecting to have another Eureka meltdown to deal with because of that weird truth-telling pollen plant. Pretty sure  _ my readings _ of his mood said he was pissed.”

“ _I’m not sure what you are asking, Sheriff. Do you feel something is wrong with Dr. Stark's health?_ ”

“I think he’s a vampire.” Jack said and sat down at the table with a fresh cup of coffee. “Unfortunately, between Zoe’s sparkle vampire movies and Taggart’s horny Victorian poet orgy doctor….I have learned very little. I guess an undead guy couldn’t get through GD sensors.”

“ _Dr. Stark has impeccable vitals._ ”

“Of course he’s perfect.” Jack rolled his eyes. And there she went again, moaning the man’s name. It was time to dive into the research, figure this out for himself. Especially since all the movies about vampires were for pure entertainment and probably had very little to do with anything written about them. Or they were just instruments to throw people off the scent of what they were really looking for.

He sat at the kitchen table surrounded by Zoe’s research and moved things around to figure out where to start. And there, under a stack of notebooks, was the worst evidence of all: that damned Halloween party photo! He shook his head, he should have known this would be circulating around Eureka, this whole town just drooled over the man. And Stark was teasing _him_ about  _ masterbation _ material? 

Jack stared at the picture. The teeth looked fake, but only in the way that they were exaggerated for definition and impact. They looked really good, probably created in some 3D printer lab at GD. Hell, Stark and Allison both looked good, they looked good together too. He had to agree with everyone, he couldn’t deny that he was a great looking dude and that Ally….well she was probably way way out of his league. She was playing at the All-Star game and he was just a minor leaguer. No wonder she was sick of him asking her out.

This photo, however, bothered him for another reason. He just couldn’t shake the fact that Nathan left Cafe Diem earlier without gloating about that photo. Who wouldn’t? He wouldn’t! ‘Haha. My ex-wife practically humping my leg, head next to the outline of my huge dick in tight leather pants and my glorious abs just drawing your eye right back to that huge bulge and gorgeous woman groping it.’ Why would he get up and leave when a huge victory like that was on the _ literal counter _ ? Nathan Stark would never let an opportunity like that pass!

Vampires, however, weren’t supposed to show up in photographs. Or was that the Amish? No! It was definitely that vampires didn’t show up and Amish were not supposed to be photographed. Well, that should be enough to sink this theory of his. Nathan Stark loved to be photographed and looked great in every single one. Even his damned driver’s license photo.

But this was Eureka so there  _ was _ a chance someone, namely the guy who seemed to have way too much access to the computers around here, could write a program to fix that. Ok, he was going to keep going. He put down the picture and moved on to the second piece of evidence that didn't set right with him: Allison’s reaction to his implication Nathan was a vampire.

Allison did not react well  _ at all  _ to that _.  _ The woman who remained calm and cool about the world ending every week, lost her composure when he called her ex-husband a name. She acted like he dropped a damned bomb in the middle of casual conversation. Not the bomb that she dropped that Nathan would be game for a date with a man, but that the man might have actually been a _literal_ bloodsucking ex. It felt like a fumble and a recovery, it wasn’t like her at all.

And that was all he really had, so now it was time for the physical evidence on the table. The research Zoe and Pilar were going through and their piles of stuff they had separated into ‘false’ and ‘possible’. He opted to look into the science aspect of it to debunk his own stupid theory, maybe Stark just had a medical condition. He looked at the notes about that and thankfully the girls took very detailed notes so he didn’t have to look stuff up. Porphyria, which didn’t seem to be likely. Rabies, also not likely. Tuberculosis, another dead end. 

He had to start reading for himself and pulled over a tablet with all the books Zoe had ‘checked out’ of Eureka’s digital library. He hated reading digital formats, but he couldn’t avoid it any longer. Eventually the girls would come home and ask why he was going through their stuff. An hour later he couldn't say he found hard evidence but what he did find was a lot of older papers that had a weirdly familiar  _ feel _ to them. Not in the science being delivered, but in the way it was being  _ said. _

He felt like he knew this person writing it, despite these medical journals being from the Civil War. He sat there rubbing his temples and finally pulled over to the stack of police work he had been procrastinating on for about three months. Months worth of police reports he hadn’t finished because he was struggling with signing his name on a statement full of bullshit about an incident that could get Eureka shut down. He also didn’t want to close his case on the Artifact explosion because there was a lot of stuff that didn’t make sense. Allison was way more adamant about paperwork being filed promptly, so he finished up recent stuff as quickly as possible, but so much from Stark’s reign remained. Every file he still had to finish up had statements from the director of Global Dynamics, Nathan Stark, because he liked ‘showing how it’s done’ and presenting a letter filled with jargon and twisted truths in the file for the Sheriff’s benefit. 

Now, he was happy he did. Or maybe not.

The statements and the old science papers had similar sentence structure. Similar verbiage. Eerily familiar attitude between the lines. Red flags in writing styles he had learned to look for as a Marshall. People could change their appearance and names but they could not change the experiences that made them who they were. So much was hidden in sentences; the culture of the place they were born in, the specifics of references for local fare or words that were only used in a certain part of the country. The Marshall service preached these things to people in Witness Protection; to survive they had to assimilate and forget how things used to be said back home. Call it pop, not soda. Call it a sweeper, not a vacuum. Go shopping at Piggly Wiggly and not Shop-Rite. Things that were dead giveaways to a person with a trained eye who was trying to track you down.

It could just be another leap, he could just be wanting this to sound the same and thus reading it in his head with the same tone as Stark’s deep voice. So he gave them all to S.A.R.A.H and asked the artificial intelligence to run it through a program and compare the writing to that from the research paper. She was eager to help, excited to use her plagiarism detection program on someone other than Zoe.

While he waited on that, he started looking for pictures of this Civil War doctor who wrote the paper in question. About the time he found it, S.A.R.A.H. sent the results back to the tablet. And of course, being his eager to please house, she sent a full biography of the Doctor who wrote the paper as well as his army photos from the war.

It was a match. And it was his turn to feel color drain from his face.

He swallowed hard as he looked at a old timey photo of Stark with a finely trimmed and waxed goatee and mustache, wearing a tailored surgeon's uniform and looking oddly familiar as he tried to make himself comfortable in a chair way too small for legs attached to a 6’4” man.

No. It couldn’t be Stark. He could fake digital photos of today, but a tintype photo from the 1860s? Well….maybe. For as long as there had been pictures there had been people able to manipulate them. Photos of ghosts that were just double exposures were a big deal back then. They also liked taking pictures of dead people. Oh, how trying to disprove the existence of the spirit world to piss off your sister came back to be useful information thirty years later.

What the hell was he supposed to do with all this? Maybe it was a Halloween prank? He sure couldn't say that Zoe and Jo wouldn’t attempt something of this magnitude just to push him to start dating again. Jo certainly would be happy if she won that betting pool today. “Hey, S.A.RA.H.?”

“ _ Yes, Sheriff _ .”

“Print that for me and calculate the odds that Nathan Stark is immortal and some kind of vampire?”

“ _ Based on the current data? _ ”

“Yeah.” Jack said and gathered his police reports to take them back to the office. In moving the folders around the table and saw the one with the Artifact information in it. “And include the Artifact explosion and his injuries, or lack thereof, into it.”

_ “I can’t quantify that, Sheriff.” _

“The only thing that has managed to take him out, is light. Or energy.” Jack said. “The Artifact. Walter Perkin’s ghost energy. The Nanobots. Is there some connection to vampires and electricity?” Jack asked as he tried to put everything back to where he found it.

_ “According to the Department of Energy, vampire appliances use energy even when turned off, which can account for up to 20 percent of your electric bill!”  _ S.A.R.A.H. said cheerily.

Jack rolled his head back and looked up at the ceiling. Weird time for her to glitch. It felt like she just dropped her ad blocker and got hit with a commercial. Actually, it felt more like an evasion of a question. However, she was _a computer_ and sometimes when typing things into a search engine queries just got hijacked and rerouted to whoever paid for the search results. He looked around his house, the house that used to house B.RA.D. A Nathan Stark project.

And he dabbled in everything. Especially robots and computers. 

“Well, on that note, I think I’ll go back to work and let you turn the lights down and save power. It’s Halloween. I’m sure somebody is going to get a little rowdy. Thanks for your help, S.A.R.A.H.” Jack said and grabbed that paperwork off the printer as a bad feeling washed over him.

“ _ You’re welcome, Sheriff! _ ” 

Jack packed his stuff up and gathered the files to take to the office with him and the crime scene photo of Kim’s corpse fell out. He bent down to pick it up and couldn’t help but wonder how Stark survived this same event protected by a mere observation window. He was going to ask S.A.R.A.H. for the specs on Eureka’s safety glass, but he still got chills about that time he had been locked in here during her B.R.A.D. identity crisis. He was overreacting, but he wanted to get back into his old Jeep where a few clicks, or lines of code, from a computer programmer wouldn’t lock him in a bunker to die. 

He left, got back in his Jeep and drove around thinking about all of it. All questions, no answers. This was crazy, but in Eureka it seemed like it was actually kinda tame. Stark could be a vampire. He was too perfect and people were not perfect. Sure he had his flaws in management style and ethics, but who didn’t? If he was so horrible why did he always go to him for help, as Jo pointed out?

So, considering he was at work on Halloween and patrolling the neighborhood was not uncalled for, he made a stop at Stark’s house. To ask. Because none of this made sense and when nothing made sense he went to him, since he usually caused it somehow. He was hiding something, and the only way for Jack to find out what it was was to talk to him face to face. Because he was an investigator and he could read people.

It still felt like a bad idea as he rang the doorbell. Vampires were immortal. Immortality would explain how he came out of the Artifact explosion almost unscathed. Sure he was burned, but Kim had been burned  _ and melted _ . Nathan got some skin grafts and was back out in a few weeks. He held the copy of the Civil War medical records and Doctor’s biography in his hand, rolled up like a baton. He tapped it against his leg while he waited.

Nathan opened his door and frowned. He was expecting kids so he was looking down, eyes fell on Carter’s crotch and his eyes went up to his face from there. "Sheriff."

“Trick or treat.” Jack said with a phony grin and put his hand on the door to stop it from being slammed in his face. “Hey! Got a minute?”

“None I’m going to give to you.” Nathan said and Carter just pushed past him. “By all means, come in.” 

“Something's been bothering me for a while.” Jack said.

“Well, you sure did take your time figuring that out.” Nathan went back to his kitchen to get his glass of wine. “Wish you spent more time thinking about _how_ you were going to ask me out. I do like a little romance.”

“Would you stop.” Jack said. “I’m not here to ask you out on a date.”

“If this is about why I don’t get to go trick-or-treat with my son, you’re really pushing it at the wrong time.” Nathan said and went over to his chair, wine in hand and sat down.

“No.” Jack said and looked at Nathan sitting in his chair, shirt half unbuttoned, wine in hand and a huge fucking mirror behind him. There was a reflection, but it could be a non-silver mirror. He could see his own worry on his face and decided to rush through this. What egged him on was it was almost exactly how that Civil War doctor sat in that photo. Posture wise. “It’s more about things that don’t add up  _ about you _ .”

“I’m not a vampire.” Nathan said and looked in the mirror behind him and then back to Carter. He turned to see Carter was slightly on edge, staying close to the door and keeping his hands on his waist. Close to his gun. “You sure think I am though. Want to taste my wine to make sure I’m not drinking blood?”

“It would explain how you survived the Artifact explosion.” Jack said. “Being a vampire. Not the wine.”

“So does the safety glass.” Nathan countered. “The artifact, not the wine. Since we’re having to clarify what ridiculous conversation we’re having at the moment. This is a huge leap, Carter. Even for you.”

“So a radioactive ball of unmeasured energy goes off and vaporizes Kim and destroys huge sections of Global Dynamics's heavily fortified basement, but only gives you burns because you’re protected _ by glass _ ?”

“Do you want to discuss the physics of an explosion?” Nathan asked and leaned forward in his chair and smiled. “If that’s how you want to seduce me....I’m actually kinda impressed.”

“And that’s another thing, you’re a genius, but you’re still human. How the hell does one human, age 37, accumulate this much knowledge? Specializing in everything from cryogenics to robotics to chemistry? And then you just get a Nobel in Math for the hell of it? On top of getting some degree in management or politics or something, I can’t imagine the requirements to run GD are just as simple as ‘Good at ass kissing, paperwork and science.’.”

“You’d be surprised, it  _ is _ a government facility.” Nathan sipped his wine. Watching Carter unravel mysteries was enthralling. “What else do you have, Carter? Just because I believe people should risk things for science doesn’t mean I’m a soulless, undead, creature. Unless that was your idea of a compliment?”

Jack teetered on feeling like a fool and leaving or trusting his gut that something was here and continuing. “You’re amused.”

“You’re ridiculous, it’s hard not to be amused.” Nathan couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re sitting there asking for more evidence.” Jack said. 

“And this is why I’m a vampire?” Nathan shrugged. “Seems like this is why you’re a bad cop.”

“I know you.” Jack said and couldn’t help but rock on the balls of his feet and inch back to the door. Something was off. Instinct said it was. “I know when you’re dismissive of my theories and when you’re genuinely interested to see how I find a course to the truth you’re hiding from me.”

“You make it sound like we’re married.” Nathan said and Jack wasn’t deterred. “And you wonder why people expect us to date.”

“And you wonder why you're divorced." 

"Touché" Nathan gave him a nod for the zinger there, then sipped his wine.

"Maybe you’re not technically a vampire, but you’ve managed to obtain some kind of immortality. Your ego won’t allow you to erase your past.” Jack said and opened up the paper rolled in his hand of the medical journal, and the biography attached. Stark rolled his eyes and stood up, coming over to look at this evidence. He felt his looming presence now, he felt the man moving across the room toward him and a chill ran through him. They had worked together! Hell, the man carried him out of the Artifact chamber once! He carried him out of GD’s computer tunnels once. Wait.  _ Why _ had he been in the Artifact chamber? With Carlson?

Nathan walked over, putting his glass down on the coffee table as he went. He got up next to Carter as the man was trying to keep his back to the wall, a law enforcement officer through and through. He could see he was rattled by his proximity and not sexually. The warmth in his voice was gone. Carter had stepped too far on this one. “If you think that killing Kim doesn’t haunt me, you’re _wrong_.”

Jack knew that was a twist of the situation to make him feel like the bad guy. Bursting into his house, calling him out on his mistakes and picking at fresh wounds. Ok...maybe that’s exactly what he was doing but this was not about Kim. “I went through the sources Zoe dug up for her project. Science papers about vampires and what could have caused folklore to come into existence. Scientists have have explained it away by blood disorders, rabies even. Part of her assignment was to see what was biased and bogus and what was real research.”

“I know about the Tesla project. Allison runs GD differently than I do. She’s a little more inclined to believe in ghosts and other easily explained paranormal phenomena.” Nathan raised his eyebrows. “If you’re asking for help on Zoe’s behalf, I am definitely the wrong person to ask. It’s all bullshit as far as I’m concerned. The Drechmeyers are the ones you should ask, maybe someone can get some use out of their alleged research. Miracles do happen.”

“The way some of the old reports were written was familiar.” Jack continued. He knew Stark. He knew how he changed topics to avoid talking about something he was involved in. He knew how it felt to be dismissed by him for a stupid idea and he had yet to dismiss this theory. “It turns out that I didn’t just imagine a similarity to reports you filed on Eureka’s science disasters. You remember those incident reports you submitted to me? To _educate me_ on how to hide things in paperwork the right way in Eureka? For Eureka? Well, SARAH found a very heavy match to your style. Perfect match really. To  _ Civil War era medical papers. _ ”

“S.A.R.A.H.? An AI program built over a program I wrote?” Nathan shrugged. “A program written by  _ Fargo _ who is obsessed with me? Yeah, that never comes through in the code. Does she still moan my name when she says it?”

“We found pictures.” Jack said sharply. Annoyed with his evasion techniques. “ Facial recognition software, the absolute best created by Global Dynamics, would probably also find a perfect match.”

“An artificial intelligence software.” Nathan repeated. “Once again, based on my own work. Believe it or not, Sheriff, I do have family that goes back pretty far. Good looks are apparently a curse, not because we're damned.”

“I talked to Allison.” Jack said and there was a flicker of something in his eyes. A darkness. “She didn’t say anything, she didn’t need to. I can read people, Nathan. She didn’t laugh it off, she pulled Kevin close to her like I was going to haul them away. Like she was in danger of being redacted and thrown into some D.O.D hole in the ground for the rest of her life.”

“Ally and Kevin, are not part of this.” Nathan said, finally breaking.

“And what is  _ this _ ?” Jack asked and Nathan looked away. 

“I am a vampire.” Nathan looked back at him and admitted. “I should have left after the Artifact incident. If you want me gone, you get your wish.”

Jack wasn’t expecting that. A confession? Ok, now he was definitely hiding something! Confessing to being a vampire? No, something else, something bigger was at stake here. “Did you cause it?”

“Yes. I obtained immortality and in doing so became one of the first vampires.” Nathan said. “Yes, science did this.”

“I meant the Artifact explosion.”

“No.” Nathan looked up at him. Carter wasn’t chasing him out; he was chasing answers. It’s why he respected the man. He also didn’t believe his confession. “ Hence the reason I couldn’t leave. It didn’t make sense. I checked and double checked safety protocols. We knew more than anyone what we were dealing with. And it somehow interacted with Carlson...”

“Did you kill him?” Jack asked. “I don’t remember what happened that afternoon. I vaguely remember waking up in that hallway, with you and Carlson. Why would you take me to the Artifact room after I had been shot? Why not the infirmary?”

“To save you?” Nathan offered. Carter was talking fast and jumping topics, he was nervous.

“No, that’s not it.” Jack said and wondered why he felt like he was falling into the abyss and just grasping at the air to stop himself from falling to his death. This wasn’t about vampires, it was about the damned Artifact. “Do you use that thing as an incinerator to hide things that have gone wrong? To destroy evidence?”

“What?” Nathan asked, startled by the turn of the interrogation. He was used to it, he was used to how Carter jumped around while doing everything, but this was Carter in overdrive. “No. He saved your life and then took his own.”

“I thought he was transferred.” Jack said and narrowed his eyes. “And Carl Carlson wasn’t exactly the noble self-sacrificing type.”

“No, I lied about the transfer. I covered up his suicide by Artifact. It would have only raised more questions and sealed off the Artifact for further research. You almost died, it saved you somehow, and the guy who could control it let it devour him.” Nathan said. “That is the truth.”

“How…” Jack looked at him. “How the hell does that room bring people back to life? Is _that_ how you healed yourself after the explosion?”

“No, it’s called cellular regeneration.” Nathan said and could see the thrill of the chase getting to Carter, following the scent of every unanswered question he had and barking up all the wrong trees. “Are you even listening to me?”

“Yeah, I am. Carlson’s research?” Jack said. 

“Yes.” Nathan said and braced himself for another leap because Carter looked him dead in the eye, soul-piercing blue eyes judging him.

“Just like how the nanites could rebuild skin, Carlson’s research opened up a lot of doors for GD. And you’re going to tell me he just opened the door to the Artifact, with no clearance, and walked in and killed himself? When he was within reach of vindication and success?”

“He jumped off a bridge and took  _ you _ with him.” Nathan reminded him. “Carlson’s unstable mental state was clearly documented  _ by you _ .”

“Yeah, you’re covering up something.” Jack said and turned to leave, reaching for his phone. Allison was probably protecting him. Fuck! Who the hell did he go to to figure this out? Henry was the only one….”Shit! Did you kill Kim too?”

“What?” Nathan asked. Now he was just throwing everything at him. Kim’s death haunted him and he felt that accusation cut deep.

“What did she find that was worth her life and your job and Henry’s trust?” Jack asked. “What did the woman, whose senses were heightened by recently learning that her whole life’s work had been stolen from her, find down in Section 5?”

“You’re really going to just give up on the vampire thing, huh?” Nathan asked trying to remain calm. He wanted to hit him for that one, and it took a lot to not put his hand on his throat and slam him into the wall. “Just like that? Because you understand a murderer better than an immortal?”

“Yeah, actually.” Jack said. “That’s exactly what’s going on and I’m getting answers _ tonight _ .”

“I just told you I was a vampire.” Nathan said. “Please don’t make me show you my fangs. It’s really not pleasant when I don’t have endorphins circulating in my system from the fight or fuck response. I’m getting there though.”

“Fine. I’ll give you a reason to get your fangs out for a fight.” Jack said and pulled out his phone and looked for General Mansfield’s number. “You’re answering for your crimes. Science didn’t kill these people, not like you’re saying it did. You let them die for the science. You’re a vampire alright, sucking the intellectual property out of people before offing them in some horrible accident the government will just write off. Pushing me to falsify records to corroborate your acts. You don’t specialize in everything, you take it just like Jason Anderson did. You might understand it all but you can’t stop time to make all that research happen! It’s impossible to do everything you do!”

That, coupled with Jack showing him his phone and who he was calling and that thumb of his amount to hit the call button, was enough to trigger a fight response. He slapped the phone from his hand and pinned him to the wall, fangs breaking out of his gum line and lips pulling back in an attempt to not be cut in the process. A hiss emitted from his mouth as blood and saliva got in the way of speech. “Do you believe me now?”

Jack looked at the fangs, inches from his face. He struggled under Nathan’s grip. “What the fuck!”

Nathan glared at him. “Come on Jack, believe your eyes and believe me when I tell you I didn’t kill Carlson or Kim. You came here tonight believing I was a vampire, now it’s time for the follow through. You need to see it to believe it, fine. You get what you want.”

And it was a struggle because the evidence didn’t make sense. Despite everything he saw here in Eureka, seeing teeth erupt from Stark’s gumline, it just wasn’t registering. He stared at them, “Explain the teeth.”

“You spent your entire day attempting to prove I was a vampire, worked yourself up enough to walk in my house and accuse me of being a vampire and then when I admit to you that you are right, you refuse to accept it? I’m showing you my teeth, idiot! How can you deny that?” Nathan asked. “Why are you the most frustrating man I have ever met in my entire life? Centuries I have lived and not one person comes close to how aggravating it is that you are so good at what you do and yet so stupid about how you go about things.”

Jack watched him lick his teeth. Wiping blood off. Swallowing the blood. “Thanks?”

“And adaptable and way too well adjusted.” Nathan said. “Nobody has ever reacted like this. How are you calm?”

“Why do you say I’m calm? I kinda want to shoot you right now.” Jack said and struggled a little but Stark’s grip was so strong. It wasn’t worth the fight, the waste of energy. Not while conversation was still civil.

“I can hear your heartbeat.” Nathan said and looked at his face and neck. “I can hear your breathing, it’s controlled.”

“Occupational hazard? I have training to keep calm in the face of danger and certain death.” Jack said. “One of those things they teach you on the shooting range at Glyncoe.” 

Nathan let go of him so he could wipe his mouth off. He hated the slobbering and gum swelling that came with letting his teeth show. “Can we have a conversation about this, now? Without you calling in the cavalry? I’m being sincere when I say that I will leave town right now rather than risk exposure or putting Ally and Kevin in danger. I trust that your word will mean you will keep this between us to keep them safe. I have no intentions of killing you.”

“Sure.” Jack said. Just rolling with the situation, as wild as it might be, that was his life now. Stark appeared genuine and could have killed him, he overpowered him easily. So this, was a real truce.

“Did you bring backup?” Nathan asked. “I assure you that Eureka does not have any weapons capable of killing me, I made sure of that. I don’t need Lupo kicking in the door right now while I have my cackles up. It won’t end well.”

“Nah. I was counting on Anne Rice’s lawyers bursting into the room with a C&D order like the Spanish Inquisition if you really were a vampire.” Jack said and Stark looked at him surprised. It wasn’t that he would crack a joke right now, it was the act of trying to defuse the conversation that was appreciated. The help to calm down. Then the thought of Jo reminded him of something. “Wait. The PsuedoSilver thing?”

“Yes. To prevent weapons from being crafted against us here.” Nathan said and didn’t ask how he knew about that. Carter was standing in his living room with more information gathered in 24 hours than anyone amassed in 2400 years. 

“That’s a level of manipulation that kinda is impressive. It’s actually classic you.” Jack said. 

“Thanks.” 

“You did that? Make the fake silver?” Jack asked. “So you made gold at some point or something? Is that why you can afford all those expensive suits?”

“I didn't have to. We have an alchemist here, Christopher Dactlyos.” Nathan felt his adrenaline subside. “And I don’t need to make gold, I make _money_ because I genuinely am good at my job. I do my own research and all of it is my own, thank you.”

“Wait. Dactlyos? The art teacher?”

“He prefers titles like: sculptor, artist, genius and alchemist. But, yes, the art teacher .” Nathan gambled he could play this off later if needed. He wasn’t outing Chris as one of them, a vampire that is. “He’s my ex.” 

“Ex what? Partner in crime?”

“Boyfriend?” Nathan raised his eyebrows. 

“Oh.” Jack said. 

“You’re really bad at reading people.” Nathan said with a smile. “No..that’s not it. You struggled with your attraction to me and you couldn’t allow yourself to see…”

“I’ve been with men.” Jack said and Nathan’s eyebrows rose and his smile said that he was really glad to hear that. “You’re just not my type.”

“Oh? Don’t like the narcissistic asshole? I’ve met your ex-wife.” Nathan looked him over. “I’ve met you.”

“You specifically.” Jack said. “But I’m not here for that.”

Nathan glanced down at his crotch and slowly raked his eyes up his body til he reached his neck, licked his lips, then looked into those stunning blue eyes. Carter’s face flushed a little. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“Fine! I can’t deny you’re beautiful and brilliant and fucking amazing to look at. You’re kinda funny, but you’re also a dick. You’re selfish….” Jack said. 

“So are you.”

Jack opened his mouth to reply and then frowned. “Thanks. Really?”

“You are. Beautiful and brilliant, _in your own way_.” Nathan waved at the kitchen. “So, dinner?”

“Can we go back to the vampire part?” Jack asked. “This is for real, right?

“It is.” Nathan asked. “How much history do you want? My beginnings? Or just ours? The Artifact? The fact that Carlson recreated something that was way way too similar to the formula that turned me into this, but was merely a conduit for the Artifact? That he saved your life? That the Artifact may be an equalizer and trying to balance nature and destroy or enhance my kind?”

“Maybe we can start simple?” Jack asked, totally unprepared for this turn of events. Nathan washed his mouth out with the wine. “You drink blood?”

“Haven’t in years. Believe it or not, modern advancements have tainted things a little. A lot of impurities float around in blood these days. ”

“Diseases?”

“Food. People do not eat healthy these days, I can taste it in their blood. Sort of like when the oil needs to be changed in the fryer and you can taste the oil infused with everything it's cooked.” Nathan walked into his kitchen to see if Carter followed, and he did. His curiosity was piqued, he was relaxed enough to move further into hostile territory. That man amazed him,

“So the biting is a myth?” Jack asked as Stark started pulling out pans and food out of the refrigerator. Apparently he was making dinner and as soon as he realized it, his stomach growled. He had been so hyper-focused on this case today, he forgot to eat. 

“Oh no.” Nathan said and made a show of his now clean teeth and a glance at Jack’s neck again. “That lore about the sexual nature of the bite, the orgasmic release...that’s real.”

“Then why did Ally bitch about the sex? Why did she leave you if the lore is real?” Jack said. It was weird to be on the opposite side of this debate now, forcing Stark to prove he was in fact a vampire. 

“Because I never bit her.” Nathan kept his hands busy, pulling food out to see what he could make for dinner. Of course Carter would jump right into it on the topic of his failed marriage, which, ironically, was exactly what he liked about Ally. “Wanted to, she wanted me to. She begged me to. It wasn’t the right time. We fought and I left Eureka.”

“You  _ were married _ .” Jack said. “Seems like the person you’d want to bite?”

“Well, the bite is forever.” Nathan said. “And our marriage was already a dumpster fire. She resented me. So, as much as I would have loved to, I never did.”

“So the picture….”Jack said, returning to that vampire picture that was clearly done intentionally. He wished he was surprised, but it was a very Nathan Stark thing to do: flaunt who he was in everyone’s face. “That party. You guys got drunk. You ripped off her dress…”

“To be fair, the dress was hardly ballistic material and she thought the punch might relax me and my stance.” Nathan admitted. “I drank too much. We came home and she was eager and I...wish it had been genuine.”

“So what do you drink?” Jack asked.

“Scotch.” 

“ _ People _ ?”

“No, you idiot,  _ whiskey. _ ” Nathan sighed. Carter could make him less tense about anything with his stupid banter. “Although if you want to stick around for drinks I can tell you about a Scottish play I once was in, early 1800's, and how good I look in a kilt. I have a painting commemorating it. You’d like it. Just enough leg, no shirt, no underwear.”

“So, I was right?” Jack asked quizzically. “About all your specialties?”

“I’ve had a lot of time to learn and, to be honest, science is the one thing that remains interesting and unobtainable.” Nathan stopped busying himself and turned to look at Carter whose face was lit up with interest. “Science has been a way to get around the limitations of my condition. The feeding on blood can be done synthetically, I can make blood in a lab. Have for centuries. It’s more of an anemia issue than a feeding.” 

“What about the pictures I found? Photographs? I thought that was something you couldn’t be caught in?”

“We did our part to erase a lot of photos and someone caught on. It was easier to say vampires couldn’t be photographed than to have someone know there was a conspiracy to cover up our existence. Photography was an incredible invention, but signaled a new era of difficulty in hiding our immortality. I photograph well. Don’t you agree?” Nathan kept trying to get a read on him, his eye dilation and heartbeat said he was edging towards being aroused but his controlled breathing was keeping that in check. He wondered what it would take to make him let go of that. He was more attractive than ever right now. 

“So the daylight sensitivity?” Jack asked. 

“Eye drops.” Nathan said. “Changes color to shield my eyes and filter out light.”

“Is that why your eyes change based on the shirt you're wearing?” Jack gasped. Finally, an explanation!

“Jack, these are all very specific observations that you can not write off as purely  _ professional _ .” Nathan smiled at him, enjoying the sound of his name on his tongue. Trying to make this more casual, trying to make him let go. “Admit it, you want me.”

“Your driver's license says your eyes are hazel.” Jack explained, ignoring that last comment. It was getting hard to write off his obsession as purely police interest. He was getting hard, period. “You speed a lot and I look at that license almost every week.”

Nathan heard a flutter of something, like the hiccup of denial in Jack’s heart that maybe the thrill of the hunt was actually more of a thrill for something  _ else _ . He didn’t dare pass up the opportunity to make Jack stop playing games about this tension between them. He walked over, walked over and pinned him against the table, effortlessly. He bent down and got close to Jack’s neck as he struggled under him. He heard his heartbeat and said softly, calmly, “Then why is your heart rate the cadence of sexual excitement and not mortal fear?”

“Why are you so fucking ripped for a guy who sits behind a desk all day?” Jack asked. He hated that he should have been overcome with fear but was instead pretty damned aroused by this move.

“Superhuman strength wasn’t on the list of perks of vampirism in your research?”

“If it was, and abs like that were on the plate, you better believe more of your scientists would be working to turn themselves into vampires.” Jack said breathlessly. “And I don’t think Carlson bought into that package.”

Nathan took a step back and released him. HIs mouth was watering. HIs own body reacting to Jack in a primal way that he most definitely didn’t need right now. “I work here, in Eureka, so I can make sure that doesn’t happen. We don’t make more of us. Unless absolutely needed.”

Jack had to take deep breaths to calm himself from that small brush with Nathan. He flushed with embarrassment as he thought about the other man being able to read his body and pulse like that. He was turned on. Which was...making him question things. He had to keep talking to get his body back under control. “Explain?”

“Immortality? It’s about _ living _ forever not about death _not_ taking us. The lore is about an undead creature, sucking people of life because there is too much to gain from being immortal.” Nathan asked. “Power. Knowledge. Everlasting life. Have to make that unappealing somehow.”

“So you took away garlic?”

“It’s not that bad. It’s like being lactose intolerant. We modified human bodies not created zombies that have no blood and have to feed on people to stay alive. People are gross. Especially back then. Need blood flow for erections.” Nathan said. “Vampirism was a science experiment gone wrong.”

“So Eureka...existed somewhere else?”

“Sort of.” Nathan said. “It was centuries ago. Before science was science. When ‘Eureka’ was first uttered by Archimedes in ancient Greece, as he ran through the streets naked.”

“I’ve seen his statue and he does _not_ look like you.” Jack said.

“Thanks.” Nathan smiled and winked. “I didn’t just learn math ‘for the hell of it’, I learned from the Master. I learned a lot about critical thinking, about physics and astronomy and engineering. I loved learning so much that I wanted to stay alive forever to see the world and what people could do. I was so naïve.”

“Your body...isn’t that of a scholar.”

“It was ancient Greece.” Nathan laughed. “Military was mandatory. I never let go of that body, even when I went from battlefield to thinker.”

“So...Eureka? And the statue of Archimedes? It’s all homage to a teacher?”

“Yeah. And a way of life dedicated to learning and a culture that valued thinking.” Nathan said. “I’m a little nostalgic about that time, a reminder of my humanity.”

“So you’ve been alive since then? Or before?” Jack asked. “You became a vampire in ancient Greece?”

“I worked with a friend at the Library of Alexandria, a man who came with me from Greece. What would become alchemy, started in Egypt. Immortality was a theme there. To live forever a lifetime was dedicated to pyramids and tombs, everlasting monuments to finite lives. We found it. Immortality, that is. We created it. We became immortal.”

“You would.” Jack said and Nathan smirked at him, the way he always did. That smile that said he liked how Jack didn’t bow down at his feet, that smile that was a little humor and a little too soft to say he took it as an insult. Ok, maybe he liked Nathan a little more than he allowed himself to admit. “Who was this guy?”

“My ex. Chris Dactlyos.” Nathan said and Jack raised his eyebrows. “Don’t worry, we had a falling out ages ago. Fucking Romans ruined everything.”

“So you brought the old boyfriend to Eureka _for nostalgia_?” Jack asked.

“Don’t worry Jack, I’m single.” Nathan smiled. “Do you honestly think I would be telling you any of this if I didn’t have an interest in you. If, after centuries, you didn’t pique my interest for your unique ways of investigation. The fact that you accused me of being a vampire for the first time since…” Nathan thought about it. “Shit. I think it’s been over a hundred years. And that only happened because I was caught feeding.”

“I really don’t understand why you are though.” 

“What choice do I have at the moment? You invited yourself in and you won’t leave without truth.” Nathan said. “Ironic that part of the lore backfired.”

“How many people in this world are vampires?”

“Henry would be able to answer that. I never cared to keep count. In the old days, there were more losses than numbers. To blend in, to survive, it becomes very important to distance yourself from it all.”

“Except for your old boyfriend and…” Jack paused. “ _ Did you say Henry! _ ?”

“Yeah. Mentor of mine. I infected him to save his life.”

“Oh.”

“We’ve had a rocky relationship. Immortality is amazing until you lose people.” 

“You bit him.”

“No, biting is purely carnal. Sexual possession.” Nathan grinned and licked his teeth. “Fangs are retractable. Works a lot like other appendages when aroused.”

“Don’t you feed with them?

“Jack, did you listen at all? Did you read _at all_? My medical journals, I left some real breadcrumbs in there. A treasure map for anyone smart enough to unravel centuries of red herrings and seek us out. Prove their worth or threat.” Nathan laughed. “I wasn’t counting on you to be one, though.”

“So the fangs?” Jack asked as Nathan showed him his teeth again. “Shit. How are your teeth that perfect after all these years?”

“Regeneration.” Nathan raised his eyebrows. “Part of the way we came at the immortality serum. Allowing the body to exist in a state of cryostasis and heal itself. Muscles and organs rebuild, everything functions at a higher capacity to filter toxins and increases senses.”

“But people don’t have fangs. How did that grow?”

“Accident. The ouroboros feeding on its own tail? Yeah, snake teeth. We took a lot of parts of creation to create the perfect specimen. Back then we didn’t understand DNA, now we see things were hidden in the code by evolution and we put puzzle pieces back in the strand with the formula.”

“That seems really...poorly designed.” Jack said. “And extra dramatic.”

“We tapped into some primal aspects, old DNA without realizing it. Sure, they come out when you’re starved and feeding, or you’ve activated a fight or flight adrenaline response, but they rupture out of your gum line and it’s the endorphins that override the pain. It also produces blood and saliva, a carrier of most contagens. Salvia that’s a topical anesthetic. It’s why a bite can mean a kill not a conversion, it can be done subtly.. The bite on the neck is very arousing because the human neck is very sensitive there and pheromones are produced...and the bite is a mark of territory. Now feeding, imagine sucking away a meal through two small puncture holes. No, cut a jugular and drink from there.”

“Noted.” Jack said. “And Henry?”

“I cut myself and put my blood in Henry’s mouth. He was dying. I couldn’t see a man with such a brilliant mind be lost to this world. A man who was held back because of his race. I hoped that civilization would advance faster than it did, I doomed him to centuries of outrunning his skin color and only recently have we seen the world I hoped he would see.”

“That’s kinda nice.”

“Eh.” Nathan said. “Like I said, it’s been a rocky relationship. Anyone I have converted has blamed me for it.”

“So that’s why you didn’t bite Allison?”

“I wanted to. But I felt her surrender was pure lust, and temporary. She likes control too much. She also felt like the heightened senses would allow her to communicate with Kevin like I could.” Nathan never admitted that to anyone, but Jack seemed to really feel the hurt from that.

“You get that from someone’s pulse?”

“No.” Nathan smiled. “ Well, yes. The body gives away so much. Pupil dilation , breathing, heart rate. I could tell when our relationship turned from lust to love to...use. I left because I wanted her to love me so much that I was considering biting her. It would have been a bad idea.”

“Dactylos and Henry. Anyone else?” Jack asked.

“Please don’t round us up and stake us.” Nathan said and poured them some Scotch.

“Why would I do that?”

“Purge the evil?”

“Sounds like you’re just modified humans.” Jack said. “It really sounds like everything else gone wrong in Eureka.”

“That’s exactly what we are. Alchemists sought the philosopher’s stone. Immortality. And we found it, so much earlier than their obsession. Nature gave us what we asked for. To watch the world turn over and over, and civilization rise and fall and people we loved fade to dust. Until the very end.”

“You’re lonely.” Jack said, the somber tone making it so very evident. 

“Very.”

“That’s why you’re telling me this?”

“Fresh blood if you will. Everyone else has heard the story and debated it all before. Science, pushing the boundaries of nature again, that’s all we have. Humanity is disappointing.”

“Is that why you made Callister?” Jack asked. “So...he wouldn’t die?”

“And he was killed by a virus. Irony.”

“Sorry.”

“Why? You didn’t kill him. You were empathetic of a robot. Maybe that’s why I felt you’d be empathetic of me.” Nathan shrugged. “Perhaps A.I. was a way for me to test the waters on how we would be received in society and not just about longer lifespan. People don’t change, though. It’s why we stay hidden. We never help.”

“So you want to keep doing your vampire stuff at GD?”

“Until I have to leave because of my age or lack of aging. I love it here. This place is everything I hoped civilization would advance to. And it’s always under attack..” Nathan went back to his wine. “ 

“Ok.” Jack said. “I mean you haven’t killed anyone. Or have you?”

“Nope. Not since the war.” Nathan said. "I was honest about Carlson and Kim. I still don't have answers myself."

“What war?” Jack asked but he had seen the pictures from the Library of Congress. 

“All of them.” Nathan said. “I look amazing in uniform, can’t kill me and it’s ethically acceptable blood.”

“I thought you didn’t need to feed.” Jack narrowed his eyes at him.

“Our bodies are operating at a very very high capacity. The blood is a carrier of nutrients and cooling capacity, it gets worn out before we do. Blood, fresh blood, it’s a shortcut to resting. And it goes back to that primal urge. The bloodlust lingers, ironically enough, from when I was human.” Nathan replied. Jack was trying to trip him up.

“That’s a lot of imagery.”

“So it would be a bad time to ask if you want to stay for a drink? Dinner?” Nathan asked. “I miss being able to talk to someone. I miss the open exchange of ideas.”

“Seriously?”

“Your heartbeat just…”

“First rule, stop that.” Jack said with an accusatory finger.

“We have rules now?” Nathan asked. Happy the banter started up again. His smile was genuine when he asked, “Does that mean you’re staying for dinner?”

“Yeah.” Jack said. “Maybe I have been trying to figure out my feelings for you and classifying them as jealousy and animosity…”

“Maybe?” Nathan hummed.

“Maybe I am a little fixated on you and not Ally. Maybe I’d like to figure that out.” Jack let his breathing controls go, he let his body act like it wanted to. And his body wanted Nathan Stark, bad.

“You’re not going to accuse me of putting some vampire spell on you, are you?” Nathan asked, his own excitement building as Jack's was allowed to shine through.

“I doubt playful insults and scientific consultation are part of your tricks.”

“Never know.” Nathan smirked.

“Apparently I am into that and I’m really fucking into you.”

“I’m really having a hard time not going feral and fucking you against the wall.” Nathan admitted.

“Then let's find out how that goes before I find out if  _ I'm _ for dinner.”

“Jack Carter, I have waited centuries for a man like you.” Nathan said and was across the kitchen in an instant, lips locked onto Jack and careful as ever to not let his teeth nick him. There was no way the were retracting now.


	4. True Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the porn chapter. 
> 
> If you're here for plot and not porn, you can skip this and get the recap in Chapter 5. 
> 
> If you're here for porn, you came to the right place. I did update tags. 
> 
> It's like 'Choose your own adventure'. :)

_Trick or Treat_

Chapter 4

**True Blood**

* * *

Jack quickly ran through a mental checklist as Nathan pushed him towards the bedroom and they both tried to take off their clothes as they went. The checklist was  _ really _ out of focus and he was  _ really _ having a hard time caring about it, but his brain kept hollering at him to care about self preservation. Nathan Stark was  _ really _ a vampire and that was kinda hot. No!  _ Dangerous _ ! _Very_ dangerous! In a very sexy kinda way.  Nathan kissed him and he kissed him back aggressively, as his lower brain screamed at him to not ruin a good thing. OK, quick checklist. The quickest checklist ever.

He was going to fuck Nathan Stark. 

_ Yes!  _

Who was a vampire.

_ So? _

And he wasn’t worried about being bitten and turned into a vampire? 

_ Nope! _

Why? 

_ Because Nathan hadn’t given in to Allison when she got him drunk and wanted him to do it. If he didn’t bite her, then he had some serious control.  _ _ Yeah! Wow did she have issues though! Dodged a bullet there. _

Next question? Uh...what was he so beautiful? Holy Shit! Was this man an _actual God_? 

_ NO! Bad penis! You don’t get to ask questions!  _ OK, a real question! Think Jack! Quick! You're falling behind on the stripping of clothes and you're looking stupid!

Why....why wouldn’t Nathan just kill and eat him and get him out of the way? Especially since he just threatened to call General Mansfield?

He asked himself this as Nathan pushed him up against a wall to try and help him get his pants off and he shivered with delight. Apparently he was taking too long and incapable of multitasking right now. 

Oh, how he wished he could just tell his self-preservation to fuck off. 

That was his penis talking again, but half his brain was agreeing with it.

However, as his gun belt hit the floor, he quickly answered himself. He was banking on Nathan not eating, or drinking, him because he had remarked on many occasions how pathetic his diet of cheeseburgers was and he was pretty sure that fell under the “people’s blood is gross these days because they eat so much junk food.”

_ Hell yes!  _

_ Check, Check, Check, CHECK! _

By the time they were at Nathan’s bedroom, his gun belt was gone, shirt unbuttoned, belt lost, pants sort of pushed down over his hip and all he had managed to do was run his hands over Nathan’s chest and pop a button off his shirt. He looked like he sucked at foreplay because he was doing metal paperwork.

Oh. _The irony_.

The good news was he pretty much confirmed that he was indeed attracted to Nathan and was not nearly as suspicious of him as a villain as previously thought. And this realization felt  _ damned good _ . Especially as Nathan hand his hand over his hip to help those pants come off.

He had to admit he had always trusted Nathan’s answers, maybe not his motives, but the scientist had always stepped up to help him when it counted. And he was happier after he got to work with him.

_Oh_ _yeah._ He’d been in denial for a while. He finally had to step back and take his boots off and step out of his pants and underwear. Nathan took the opportunity to strip in front of him, removing his clothes like a fucking model, with a smile on his face. Jack hurried, Nathan did not. Jack fumbled with the last bit of clothes as Nathan stepped out of his pants like he was coming to earth to play with a mortal. And Jack was perfectly happy with that, because Nathan's body looked like it had been carved by God's hand.

Clothes were gone. Any reservations, _ gone _ . And his inhibitions were long gone. 

The crashed into each other, the brief time their bodies were apart only adding to their hunger for each other. Now their bodies were skin on skin, no longer separated by clothing, and Jack was enjoying the sensation of being pressed up against Nathan's perfect body. Warm, hard and perfect. He kissed him again, enjoying the feeling of rough beard hair on his face as his body met with nothing but smooth muscle. 

Nathan was careful with his teeth which allowed Jack to be way more adventurous, and needy, with his own. Jack pushed the larger man back on the bed, lips landing on his chest as he landed on top of him. Kisses over beautiful pectorals, teeth raking over sensitive nipples and heated breaths blown over tanned skin as his chest heaved with excitement. His own penis was twitching with joy, reminding him that there had been quite a dry spell for him recently.

It had been a long time since Jack had seen action with more than just his hand and he was a little worried that he might get too excited too fast. However, the way Nathan was responding to him, made him feel like he was also pretty neglected. “So..uh..it’s been a while.”

“My salvia has a topical anesthetic property if licked on. I can numb you a little.” Nathan replied, enjoying laying on the bed and having Jack appreciate him like he was.

Jack caught his breath and everything throbbed. Was Nathan…. implying that he was game for a rimjob? That was enough to make his own mouth water. He hadn’t even reached that point of thinking about accommodating Nathan’s huge dick, which also made everything throb more. “Wow.”

“Taste receptors on a part of my tongue, when rubbed cross grain…” Nathan looked at Jack’s eyes which said that he wasn’t interested in the details and was more amazed at the offer. “What? You’re not talking about…”

Jack reached out and put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder, as if the offer itself was being withdrawn. He also needed to steady himself because his head was swimming with all the emotions and reactions this situation was creating. “No, I am game. I definitely am a bottom.”

“We’re not talking about the same thing, are we?” Nathan asked but Jack was smiling. 

“When do we ever?” Jack asked and crawled up onto the bed, straddling him, in order to kiss him. “I’m saying yes. I’ll take it.”

”You’re not getting any clearer.” Nathan grinned and kissed him back. 

“Pretty sure that was damned clear.” Jack said and didn’t care how needy that sounded. 

“God dammit.” Nathan said, his body reacting to Jack as he crawled all over him, rubbing his body against his and lips and hands roaming everywhere. “I really should have made it clear what I was offering on the first day we met.”

“I..” Jack laughed a little as Nathan’s hands started kneading his ass to illustrate his point. “Was a little confused by you. ”

“Par for the course with you.” Nathan drawled and got a grin from Jack for that. “I take it you’re not confused about…”

“What I’m doing?” Jack’s grin only broadened. God, he wanted this  _ bad _ and had no shame whatsoever in telling Nathan about it. If he made it to bed with someone, he trusted them. After that, there was no holding back. He sat up, felt Nathan’s hard cock press against his taint and took a deep breath. “Yeah. But I’ll pass on that numbing offer….as long as you have lube...”

Nathan looked down at him and found himself unable to do more than nod. He sat up, holding Jack on his lap and the son of a bitch ground his pelvis into him. His fingers dug into Jack’s hip and he pressed his lips against the other man’s. Trying to maintain some composure and not completely lose it. “I..have to warn you..”

“You’re huge. Got it. I have eyes.” Jack said and ran his hand over Nathan’s beard, rocking again into his lap and pressing his own leaking cock against Nathan’s belly. “I’m into it.”

“Not what I…” Nathan groaned. “Jack, I have a hard time keeping my primal urges in check when I’m this excited….”

“Good.” Jack said and saw the worry in Nathan’s eyes as he kissed him. “You can use that numbing action tongue tomorrow when I’m unable to move from your bed.”

Son of a bitch! He was not expecting Jack Carter to be such a tease and….he grunted as there was another slide back and forth in his lap. “I mean, I might lose control. The human side of me...it takes a lot to maintain the balance and hold back the animalistic traits that...”

“I wouldn’t be naked in your lap if I didn’t trust you.” Jack said and that got a flicker of surprise in Nathan’s arousal glazed eyes. The words surprised him too. “I can take it. Just keep your teeth to yourself, especially if you can’t resist sucking my cock.”

Nathan licked his lips, feeling a little more grounded; somehow reinforced by Jack’s faith. “I’m actually _quite_ skilled at letting the fangs provide a _little_ friction on the shaft while my tongue does the work. No numbing with the way I use it, _promise_.”

Jack ground himself into Nathan again, just to see the want flood his eyes once more. He kissed him, let his own tongue carefully run over the flat portion of Nathan’ fangs, then into the gap between them. He found his hips involuntarily thrusting against him. He backed off, he huffed. “Lube. Be it vampire salvia or GD magic, I don’t care. Or I legit might lose control of myself and cum in your lap.”

Nathan wrapped his arm around Jack’s back and stood up, Jack’s legs wrapped around his waist and his arms around his neck. It conveniently spread his legs and provided access to his perfect ass. He put both hands on him there, leaving Jack to keep himself from falling, while he walked to the bathroom for lube. Jack kissed him, kissed his neck which made the hairs stand up as his body reacted in a defensive manner. The adrenaline rush only heightened his senses more, allowing him to feel Jack’s heart beat as he licked and suckled on his neck, bushing up against his bearded chin and covering his neck with kisses and hot, needy breaths. His body switched into ‘fuck mode’, felling no threat from this man wrapped around him. Nathan stumbled to the bathroom, feeling his own blood racing through his system, and getting a touch light-headed because of it, He barely made it into the room, before Jack started nibbling on his ear. 

“Just take me right here.”

Nathan had to use everything he had to not obey that husky command in his ear. He fumbled for the drawer, got out the lube, squeezed it and emptied the entire bottle on the countertop. He sat Jack down on it and watched the man react to his ass hitting the cold lube and grinned at him. “You’re not a bathroom fuck, Jack.”

And just that quick, Jack was off the countertop and being carried back to the bed. His ass and balls were chilled by the lube as he was walked back to the mattress, but Nathan’s warm hands were soon working it around and warming it up. He moaned a nd he had to bury his head against the man’s neck, as his body reacted to the feeling of those large, masculine hands rolling over his slicked cheeks. Rubbing the lube like an artist mixing paint on their palette, fingers kneading at him as they pulled apart his cheeks and spread the lube closer to its destination. Just a tease, an occasional graze of a finger against the most sensitive of skin, before being pulled away and leaving the slick residue behind. A tease, to pay him for that half-assed lap dance, he was sure of it. 

Jack was still in his arms, using all his strength to cling to him while his body shuddered with a reaction to the way his hands were working. He was careful to keep the kneading action, careful to pay a little attention to the puckered hole to allude to what was coming. When his knees hit the bed, he didn't put Jack down. Instead he bent down and kissed Jack’s neck, adding more fuel to his own desires, as his finger began to travel the length of the crack of Jack’s ass. Pushing lube along the furrow, taking in the trembled excitement in Jack’s entire body, pausing to circle his hole and feeling the deep moan as it passed through Jack's lips as he kissed his throat.

Jack squeezed harder with his thighs , firmly gripping Nathan’s torso, and tightened his hold around his neck as he hung on him and had his asshole teased. Then Nathan’s finger rolled past it and forward, slathering lube between his legs and already coated scrotum. Nathan’s hand palmed his balls, he could feel his forearm pressed against his ass, as he rolled his testicles around in his hand. It was enough to get a squeak out of him, and he felt Nathan pull his lips away, rub his beard against his cheek, a purr in his chest as he whispered in his ear.

“Don’t hold back now.” Nathan said as he released Jack’s balls and slowly rolled a pair of fingers back along the perineum, on the way to their destination. “Come on Jack, let me hear you. Yell. Be demanding. Be so loud that I can’t hear your heart rate.”

And Jack moaned, words alone bringing forth a verbal release of pure, shivering want from his lips, as Nathan’s finger’s hit some of the most magical places on his body. And then they were at his entrance, one finger swirling lube around his hole and the other petting his cheek. He wasn’t sure if Nathan wanted him to beg, but he was surely about to. “Is this the part where vampires need to be invited inside?”

“No.” Nathan said and smiled as he pressed his lips against Jack’s jawline, his finger pressing just gently against his asshole but not pushing in. “I think we’re long past asking consent.”

“You want me to beg?” Jack asked and looked up at him, it was hard because his whole body was wound so tight and his vision was getting fuzzy. “I will.”

“I just want to watch you.” Nathan said as Jack made eye contact with him. Then he pressed a finger inside and watched Jack’s eyes close and his mouth open and a moan catch in his throat. His heart rate went through the roof. 

Jack tilted his head back and made a guttural sound that was definitely not a moan. He dug his fingernails into Nathan’s back and then sank his head right back into the crook of his neck. Nathan slid deeper, wiggling his finger just enough to make him shudder. Finally a moan came and it sounded like a desperate creak of an old tomb being opened. Yeah, he was being sexy. 

Nathan allowed himself to play as Jack clung to him. He felt the genuine power of Jack’s feelings rushing through his veins, his heart pumping hard to push blood around the body where it was needed and through the death-grip he had on his torso. He could feel the raw sexual need as Jack’s thrusted back against him, pushing his finger deeper and rubbing pre-seminal fluid against his abs. He didn’t want to rush this, he wanted to tease Jack and find out what it took to make him beg, but he knew neither of them would last that long right now. This energy was about to explode and there was no time for more than the necessary foreplay. 

Jack trembled as Nathan understood his want. As another finger slid into him and he felt them being thrust in and out, fingers parted to stretch him a little more, heat building in both of them beyond what they were going to be able to contain. He felt it in Nathan’s breathing, in the pause he had to take to keep that breathing regular. He remembered his concern that he’d lose control, fuck him and bite him like an animal….and that thought made Jack spit out the words, “That’s good enough.”

“It’s not even close..” Nathan said and felt Jack’s nails again.

“I want you. I want you now. I want you in me.” Jack said, huffs of need sounding more like mewls of a cat in heat than he would have liked. 

Nathan didn’t protest again, he couldn’t. Jack’s voice ate away at the levy holding back his carnal desires. He retracted his fingers, set Jack down on the bed and was kissed as soon as Jack let go of him. Hot, thirsty kisses. Hands rubbing his chest as he leaned over him and wiped his hands off on the comforter. Jack’s breaths devolved to pants now, pupils blown wide with arousal, mind and heart racing with cloudy ideas of what to do next. He was beautiful and amazing and…rolling over?”

“I want to look you in the eye too, but God dammit do I want you to fuck me from behind.” 

“Mirror.” Nathan said, as he crawled over Jack and ran his hand up under him, up his chest and neck to his chin. He lifted his chin to show him the mirror on the dresser, because he was not going to deny he had fantasies about this too: about the Sheriff bent over and releasing how bad he wanted him. He wasn’t expecting this though, he wasn’t expecting the abandonment of their struggle with power and immediate transition to the acceptance of the most basic desires. However, that was Jack Carter and that was why he wanted him so bad.

Jack looked at their reflection, as Nathan placed his cheek against his temple and enveloped his body with his own. His hand remained on his chin, the other bracing himself against the bed. Then Nathan began to kiss him, down his jawline, then his neck, kissing his neck again and dragging his fangs over his skin as he did so. Jack almost forgot about those. But, instead of fear, they made him flush with excitement.

Nathan let Jack have his head back, choosing to run his hand over his throat as he kissed it and scraped his teeth against his neck. He moved on before he lost himself in the act and let his hand run down Jack’s sternum, hand splayed over a surprisingly fit body. He ran his hand over abs he definitely didn't think existed under that uniform. Then he hit a wet spot, the evidence of Jack’s arousal. His hand wrapped around Jack’s twitching cock as his lips placed kisses along his back, beard scraping as he went.

Jack gave up on watching and had to bury his head in his arms as Nathan stroked his cock. There was a brief once over, as if he was getting familiar with the territory, then he closed his fist around him and gave a few tugs before dipping down to his balls for more lube. Of course, those got some attention too, as Nathan was not one to ignore details. He moaned as that hand wrapped around his length once more and gave some firm and pleasurable strokes. All the while his back shivered under the kisses and tickling from his beard hair. It was almost too much. “Nathan. I…”

“Something I can help you with, Sheriff?” Nathan drawled, quoting himself from earlier when Jack had come to Cafe Diem and sat next to him. Who knew they’d end the day like this?

Jack had to give it to him, he was still an ass. And he genuinely liked that ass. All of it. He forced himself to push his head out of the safety of his arms, and look in the mirror. Sure enough, Nathan was smirking at him as he rubbed his beard against his back. It only made him more aroused, which he didn’t think was possible. “I should have ordered a filling lunch  _ of you _ this afternoon.”

Nathan loved his humor. Loved that he maintained his composure through humor in a situation even if he was laying on his bed, doggy style, with legs spread and lube slathered everywhere, Jack Carter would still maintain his image with that smart mouth of his. And Nathan appreciated it because it wasn’t like Jack just lost himself in lust and was going to blame this encounter on an ‘in the moment lack of judgment’. No, he was comfortable with what he wanted and it made him even hotter. 

“Fuck me. Now.”

And he kept his eyes locked on him, a power move despite his position. And it excited Nathan beyond belief, his gums throbbed, something he never encountered before in the heat of the moment. It was if they were wanting to deliver more than the ecstasy of sex immediately, like they wanted Jack for their own. It was a ridiculous thought, and Nathan dismissed it as he sat up and sat back on his heels. He needed a free hand to guide himself in, but he didn’t want to let go of Jack. Gently he rubbed the man’s engorged head as he rolled his own over the excessive amounts of lube on Jack’s ass.

Jack watched him in the mirror, watched Nathan’s face as he focused on preparing himself for penetration. Watched Nathan as his own dick was massaged and rubbed with the same motion the other man was doing to prepare his own. He felt his excitement building, the anticipation of being fucked by a man who he had been building tension with for the last year. He watched Nathan's lips as he struggled with the saliva production. He assumed he really wanted to numb him pretty bad, and did his best to relax so he wouldn’t need it. He most definitely did need it, but there had always been a bit too much excitement for a little pain for him to deny himself any feeling. Especially if Nathan left this bed with regrets. Yeah, if he was getting fucked, he was going to take all the memories to savor for later, take them with every fucking inch of Nathan’s dick.

Nathan looked up in the mirror and caught Jack’s eyes. He looked thirsty. A lustful thirst, but the hair on his neck raised anyway as he felt like he was fucking one of his own kind. His gums pulsated again, telling him that he very well  _ could be _ if he just lunged in for the bite. Just one lunge forward after he was fully inside Jack, the man would be thrashing against him in ecstasy anyway, a bite would enhance things….

“Nathan?” Jack said as a conflicted look went across the other man’s face. He got his attention, his full attention as the haze of lust left his eyes. “Slow and easy at first. Let me feel every inch of you entering me.”

Nathan almost choked on his own salvia. That was enough to chase away those demons on his shoulder and remind him of this incredible man waiting on him. Jack focused him, always. When this was over, and they lay here spent, he would think about that more. Right now, his cock throbbed harder than his teeth and he was definitely feeling 100% human. He began stroking Jack again, not even realizing he stopped.

“No. No distraction. I want to feel you enter me.” Jack said huskily. “And look at me.”

Nathan trembled as he let go of Jack’s cock and focused on his own. He used the free hand to pull a cheek aside, a quick look down to verify placement and to roll his engorged head over the target, then he returned his eyes to the mirror. The mirror, supposed to expose him for being a soulless monster, a reflection of this moment of the closest that two souls could be to each other. And he definitely felt a connection to Jack, this wasn’t  _ just  _ sex. Not like it had been with Ally.

Jack didn’t keep eye contact very long as Nathan pushed into him, he barely made it past the sphincter before Jack’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and his entire body convulsed with a moan. “Don’t stop, keep going...oh fuck yes.”

Nathan felt like his eyes would explode right out of their sockets if he didn’t slam his eyelid shut to keep them in. His head disappeared into Jack and Jack tightened around him, ass cheeks clenching and warmth and pressure washing over him. Eye shut immediately after, his nervous system felt like it was setting off fireworks throughout his body. Jack's mouth, not helping any.

“You feel so good. More.”

And he gave him more, as Jack thrashed in delight. Moans and shivers coming from under him, he had grab a hold of his hip to keep him still enough to go deeper.

“Hold that….”Jack demanded and Nathan stilled. He took a deep breath and reveled in the feeling of the pressure against his prostate. Then he rocked back, pushing Nathan deeper.

“Jack…” Nathan hissed, not expecting the man to take control. 

“Mmm.” He replied and pulled back a little, then rocked back once more, hitting that spot that made him want to scream. He bit his lip to avoid that, afraid he’d not be able to come back down from that cry of pleasure and spasm himself to completion. No, he was determined to find out the very depths that Nathan could reach before giving in and letting his body have what it wanted.

“We’ll come back to that, I promise.” Nathan said and thrust into him another inch, Jack gasped and shouted and had to grip the sheets as he melted into it. “Unless you need it?”

“You’re giving me what I need.” Jack cooed, feeling a pressure building in his chest that made his voice come out in a half-moan, half-gasp...definitely slutty way. That pressure he was familiar with, it was an orgasm that was growing, but unlike he had ever experienced before. The intensity was incredible. Then Nathan slid further in, and stroking of his cock commenced, causing that pressure to start to vibrate with anticipation as his thighs trembled. 

Nathan bent over, pushing deeper, putting his lips on Jack's back to feel the breath shaking within his lungs. To feel the man struggle to maintain control of himself, to prolong the bliss of the intercourse. “Deeper?” 

It was said with a growl, as teeth raked against his back, a hand stroked his erection and a cock pressed deeper than any other had ever been. Nathan’s arm was around his chest now, as if he wanted to feel how hard it was for him to breathe. His thrust was from the hips, no longer a push into a tense hole, and more than half of his length was already buried in Jack’s body. The thought of it was driving him crazy, especially with the beard brushing him and the teeth. He felt like he was going into a frenzy, this was the best he had ever felt in his life and he wanted... “More…”

Nathan began to hyperventilate, each thrust bringing him closer to Jack’s neck. Each thrust, burying himself deeper into the man’s body. Blood was pumping, hands clutching at sheets, breaths only half taken and thrusts met with a lifted ass and a begs for more. He trembled as his cock was welcomed by clenched muscle, by the needy pants and mewls of a man who knew exactly what he desired. He had never been this turned on in his life and he felt something building in him that was reminding him his body was still part beast. The race to the finish was also a race to beat the vampire in the shadows and he felt his gums throb again.

Jack couldn’t get any closer to Nathan, but his body screamed for more. They were thrusting against each other now, inch here to inch there. He wasn’t in fully, but excitement and carnal instinct was demanding more. A moan was just trapped in his throat as the climax built, but there was still more. A voice in him, a voice from the chasm in his chest that was threatening to explode kept telling him 'more'. The bubble trapping his voice in his throat finally pooped and when he was able to say something, it was, “ _Bite me_. Bury yourself in me, completely. Do, it Nathan. Please.”

Nathan heard that, a cry, a plea, _ a need. _ The split second he paused to ask himself if he heard correctly was all that was needed for the vampire within to surge ahead in the race and take over. In a fraction of a second, he was fully buried in Jack and teeth were embedded in his neck. 


	5. My Immortal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "One more chapter." I say, and it's always a lie. "Just a quick warmup fic". Lie. "Short story." LIE.
> 
> Well, one more chapter after this. :) It's written, but I just couldn't post it all in one chapter because it had a totally different tone. 
> 
> So I say, now.

_ Trick or Treat _

Chapter 5

**My immortal**

* * *

Nathan took longer than he ever had to resume control of his own body. His vampire side rode the power of the ecstasy of the bite and the subsequent orgasm as long as it could. He didn’t black out, he had clear memories of everything, he simply had to take a back seat when making key decisions.

Like biting Jack and the kiss after. _The kiss_ …

Nathan ran his tongue along his lower lip and verified that the tissue had been torn up by his fangs. It was healing now, but it was the evidence that he needed to confirm he did the unthinkable:  _ he turned him _ . 

Panic set in as he looked over as Jack lay, completely spent, on his bed. He had thankfully fallen off him to the side where he could see his face. There was a satisfied smile there as the man rested comfortably and immediately Nathan’s eyes went to his neck. The bite was still fresh, deep and red. His body pulsed as he realized he had gone too far. 

“Mmm?” Jack said and moved closer to him.

He didn’t say anything. Jack felt him, felt the pulse and answered. How was this possible? He wasn’t even turned yet. This was impossible. He had to verify all this wasn't some kind of hallucination. 

Jack smiled as Nathan’s hand ran up his arm. He forced himself to open his eyes because he knew there was something spectacular to look at. Nathan, unfortunately, look worried. “I’m  _ fine _ . That was _amazing_. You didn’t break me. Truly am satisfied with everything I asked for.” 

Nathan looked at him, a beautiful body with permanent mark now on his neck. Forever. He kept looking at the bite mark and could feel the vampire inside laughing at him. Why  _ him _ ? Why Jack? The sex was amazing but surely there was something else? Something else that made this darkness take over and want him, want to possess him. Nathan kept asking himself ‘why’ but he knew why. He felt that there was something different about Jack from the moment they met, that’s why he got his cackles up in defense of Ally when he was over her. Then proceeded to flirt with Jack to keep him at bay. And round and round they went for almost a year. Nathan licked his lips, knowing that wasn’t it. How did he explain that he felt  _ something  _ different in Jack Carter that didn’t sound like he found an anatomical anomaly while balls deep in the man’s...

“What’s wrong?” 

Nathan felt his hand on his cheek and looked down into those intense blue eyes. He cared. Genuinely cared. And now he was going to throw this all away before it could even begin. Maybe it was revenge for keeping such tight control over the vampire within for so long, for thinking he was above being just an animal. “Did you believe me when I told you I was a vampire?”

“ _ That’s _ what you’re worried about?” Jack laughed but Nathan was being serious. He was worried. It was kinda sweet. “I asked you to bite me, remember? And talk about words not being able to describe how _good_ that was. You were definitely underselling that whole ecstasy thing. Holy shit, was that powerful. I also had an aneurism from climaxing that hard.”

“What I did…” Nathan felt Jack’s finger on his lips. 

“Really? You think after what we just did that I don’t realize my kinks and fully embrace them?” Jack grinned at him. “Nathan, I have never felt this good in my entire life.”

“I’m asking if you really believe it?” Nathan clarified. Jack seemed to be thinking too clearly for someone who just had an orgasm that was strong enough to damned near break his dick. That was before being compounded with the euphoria of the bite and the reaction his system had to be having to the blood mixture. Nobody was able to think past the haze of the euphoria this quickly. It was making him second guess his own memories. 

Jack laughed. “Well, kinda? I don’t know?. I believe a lot of stuff abound here but it’s not like I truly understand it all. I accept it. That’s really all you’re worried about? Not us? Not me naked in your bed? Not where does it go from here?”

“You’re feeling, ok?” Nathan asked and Jack’s eyes lit up and he sat up and leaned over.

Jack placed a very gentle and tender kiss on his lips. “That was  _ the best _ sex of my life. I can’t believe I’m not more sore. I’m actually feeling a little warm and fuzzy about how concerned you are about my body, _Dr. Stark_.”

Nathan never felt nervous like this. Something about Jack Carter made him forget about how he’d acted for centuries and just be...unprecedented. He never experienced shaken confidence like this, not after he bit someone. If anything there was always a surge of possessiveness and power. Jack seemed….immune.

“You’re having regrets.” Jack said and frowned as Nathan didn’t flash him that smile that genuinely did warm him to his core. And he had fought that feeling for too long. “You want me to leave?”

“No!” Nathan snapped way too quickly and Jack raised his eyebrows, then gave him an appreciative smile. 

“Ok. So maybe you should tell me what’s bothering you?” Jack asked. “I asked too much, didn’t I? I really got raunchy and you weren’t into it.”

“No. No regrets, whatsoever.” Nathan said and finally gave him a smile. The worst part was he didn’t regret turning Jack. Which was the part he was most upset about, not the lack of control. He ran his hand up to Jack’s neck and hesitated to run his finger over the bite mark knowing how Jack would react. He had to verify that he was even infected, which meant an end to conversation for a little while. “I bit you.”

“I remember.” Jack said and blushed a little. “Yeah, I  _ was _ a needy whore. Sorry if that isn’t your thing, but holy shit it’s been a long time and you were amazing. I’m sorry if I went too far. ”

“You didn’t.  _ I did _ .” Nathan took a deep breath knowing what touching the bite would do to him too. He locked onto Jack’s eyes and lowered his thumb, brushing against the fresh wound lightly. It was enough to make Jack collapse into his chest immediately and thrash against him; it was enough take Nathan’s breath away and instantly send him his body into arousal.

“Holy shit…” Jack said. “Keep doing that…”

Nathan flipped him over and was on him instantly, his lips pressed against his neck and his tongue running over those fang marks. The thrill rippled through him, Jack writhed under his body and it was enough to almost make him black out. He had to pry himself away and even then it was barely a few inches.

“What...what was _that?_ ”

“I’m a vampire, Jack.” Nathan said, his voice husky because of the arousal. “Now you are too. I bit you, and then...after..when we kissed...”

“Just...do that again.” Jack moaned.

“I need you to think clearly. I need you…” Nathan was silenced by Jack’s kiss.

“I need you to fuck me. Again.”

And so much for a thoughtful discussion on the predicament they were in. He knew this was coming, the bite mark was incredibly sensitive right now, swollen and still so fresh. Endorphins were rushing around Jack’s body, clouding his judgment and confusing his senses. His body wanted nothing more than to be touched. It was going to be hard to make him understand anything right now. “I had to touch you…”

“Then keep touching me.” Jack moaned.

“I had to verify you weren’t immune to me.” Nathan explained and tried to get his body under control. The touch was powerful, Jack rubbing against him and moaning every word...unbearable. Still, he had lost control and turned him and he was not going to let that happen again. Not at any cost.

“I definitely am not immune to you and really want to show you again how into you I am...with you in me.”

Nathan felt Jack’s legs wrap around his torso, and had to groan as he reacted to him. “I’m not fucking you when you’re under the influence of the Euphoria like this.”

“Is that like, GD’s version of Ecstasy?”

“No. It’s nature's version of it. After the bite, it keeps you entranced by me so I can keep feeding until you’re drained.” 

“Mmm.” Jack purred.

Nathan felt himself twitch as Jack hummed like that and began to slide his hands down his torso. “I bit you, then I turned you. I cursed you. I made you a vampire.” 

“Mmmm?” Jack hummed and inched his hands lower, enjoying the tight, rippled….lube glazed abs.

Nathan fought the urge to give into Jack as he wiggled around in the sheets under him. “I bit you and then after..”

Jack looked at him when he showed him the inside of his wounded gums. “You need to put something on that? Want me to kiss it and make it better?”

“I need you to snap out of the euphoria.” Nathan said sternly. “I only touched your neck to verify the connection, but at the cost of sending endorphins rushing all over your body. Now you'll be high as a kite unless you force yourself to gain control over your body. Something I know you are capable of, as you demonstrated earlier tonight with your excellent control of breathing and heart rate. Something I’m doing right now despite wanting to go feral again.”

“Trying to make me feel competitive?” Jack relaxed under Nathan, completely. “I don’t want to be in charge. You wore me out. I think I felt part of my brain explode when I came.”

Jack having excellent control over his body was when he was _in danger_ , did not necessarily mean he would have that control in bed. Jack, for some reason, felt comfortable with him. Trusted him. And he betrayed that trust. “I lost control. I could see nothing but the need to have you forever. When I slid out of you, I rolled you over, I bit myself and kissed you. Do you remember that?”

Jack reached up and pet Nathan’s cheek. “If I say no...will you do it again?”

“ Can you please focus?”

“Not likely.”

“I need you to understand the full weight of this.” Nathan said and placed his forehead on Jack’s to try and calm down. 

“Ok. OK.” Jack said. “Post coital freak out is apparently really deep with you. As deep as you fucking rammed me, apparently. I think I felt your dick in my throat and not the usual way I end up with dick in my throat.”

“Jack.” Nathan plead with him. He had to remember Jack could react to his own body, even though it was too early for that connection. However, somehow, Jack was in tune to him. How? 

“Keep saying my name like that.” Jack said and smiled at him. “Makes me think about how bad I want you to beg. Maybe for round two you’ll let me do some of the work?”

“There won’t be a round two if you don’t focus and talk to me.” Nathan threatened.

“Awww.” Jack said and settled into the bed under him. “Using your director's voice on me….I like it. Apparently I always liked it too much. Damn, I was really dumb.”

“What you’re experiencing is a high of being bitten.” Nathan tried, once again, to explain.

“I like being bit and it’s never felt that good.” Jack said. “Touch it again?”

Nathan shook his head. Just keep talking. Talking science would keep him calm. Jack would follow suit. “We have a connection, a very strong connection that shouldn’t be possible this early in the process.”

“Well, if I’m being honest, I guess I totally missed the offer you were putting out there on day one. You were half naked, I just thought you were being an intimidating ass with your perfect abs and mocking smile.” Jack said and sighed, disappointed in himself for not doing this sooner. “I just….didn’t want to be here. I was determined to hate it. You with it. ”

  
  


“As much as I want to review our sexual tension over the last year and the missed signals, I genuinely need you to understand what happened more recently than that. Let's go back 10 minutes, not 10 months.”

“I got fucked and it was _awesome_.”

“Jack!” Nathan snapped. “This is serious. I bit myself. I bled into your mouth and mixed our blood. Infecting people isn’t about a mere bite or just drinking a vamps blood, it’s about a reaction between my blood and pure blood and the saliva is a catalyst.”

“Your rimjob saliva?”

“No. There are many different receptors on the tongue. Different secretion, different chemical composition and purpose entirely. It’s required for the reaction between the infected blood and pure blood. Otherwise if I bled on something and it accidentally was ingested people would be vampires. I’s a very...conscious decision to turn someone.” Nathan hated to say it, this was not an accident. The bite, the need was certainly raw but the control it required to salivate in that way...oh God. He couldn’t blame his darkness for this, this was all on him.

“Like epoxy?” Jack asked as he felt Nathan’s get upset, not with him, but with the situation. Something was wrong. It was time to work. “The two tubes and you mix them together and it’s activated?”

“Yes.” Nathan took that as a signed Jack was starting to think clearly. “The ability to create a permanent bond, a shift in state from liquid to solid. We have a few things going on right now. Your body is reacting to the bite like a puncture wound with infected bacteria, almost how tetanus and botulism bacteria act. In this case it binds to your nerve end receptors and blocks adrenaline…leaving you in this state of euphoria as endorphins circulate. Preventing a fight-or-flight response."

"Ok...I get that." Jack said. "At least part of it, I don't get how but I understand what."

"Good enough. What else is happening in your body is that antibodies are forming and changing your very physiology because of the blood mixture. Like the epoxy, a thermal reaction takes place and it’s not a pleasant change. I can’t undo this. I cursed you and I’ll do whatever it takes to make this easy.”

“By touching it again.” Jack asked, hopefully.

“Not until you talk to me like you’re normal and come to grips with the reality of your situation.” Nathan said and watched Jack struggle to think while the euphoria tried to suck him back to just feeling good. 

“You are asking a lot of me.” Jack said. 

“I am.” Nathan said.

“Why me?” Jack asked. “Why me and not your wife? I was sort of banking on you not really liking me that much to want me around forever.”

“I don’t know. There was just a connection that I felt that I had to keep. I felt something in you…”

“Probably all those organs you rearranged.” Jack mumbled with a smile on his face, wiggling around contently under Nathan to illustrate the point.

“A power. I think it’s the artifact’s presence. It wasn’t human and you made me react like you were a danger, one of us, when you kissed my neck. It was ridiculous, but a defensive response. It made no sense, your body was human and I know human bodies. It was something else and I ignored it because you seemed so normal.” Nathan continued. “ When I bit you, I felt something so powerful in you that...I wanted to possess you.”

“I do not have the artifact hidden in my ass unless that’s your way of telling me you found your new obsession?” Jack said and smiled at him. 

“Please Jack, I need you to help me figure this out.”

“OK.” Jack said a little clarity coming when Nathan put his head on his chest and sounded genuinely stressed. His hair smelled so nice! It smelled, familiar. But it’s not like they hadn’t spent a lot of time working together and Nathan had his image he liked to present of the well-groomed gentleman. Perfect hair and body went with that image and so did manly, but pretty, smells. Surely the scent was just familiar because of it being distinctly _him._

"Jack?" Nathan asked as he heard him sniffing his hair.

“So, I’m a vampire.” Jack summarized the current situation.

“Yeah.”

“With your tramp stamp on my neck.”

“Yeah.” 

“And you’re some kind of immortal sex god who has numbing saliva for rimjobs and getting blood to mix vampire epoxy. And a way to just touch my neck and make me climax?"

"Yes."

"I’m having a hard time not quitting my job and being your bitch.” Jack admitted.

Nathan groaned. “Are you always like this after sex?”

“Nope.” Jack said and played with Nathan’s hair. “Do you always panic about changing people you sleep with?”

“I didn’t make the choice. The choice was made for me.” Nathan said. 

“By the Artifact?” Jack asked.

“No, by my animalistic side. The side that gives me my power and immortality does so with the price of having to be kept at bay to keep my human side from fading to the background.” Nathan grunted. He had to tell the truth about this, the truth he didn’t want to hear. “No, the truth is. I think it was still part of me that wanted this. I have to consciously activate the saliva production, I...wanted you.”

“Mmm. Well, I wanted everything we did.” Jack hugged Nathan, he felt so nice. “I asked for it, I felt like I couldn’t resist you either. I said things, without a filter. Kinda like fantasizing about some freaky shit but knowing you’d never do it, but that filter wasn’t there. And I’m not complaining, but I felt like there was something just out of my reach and I wanted it so damned bad. And you had the key to unlocking it all and I just needed to surrender to what I felt and...I never have let go like that. It was mind-blowing.”

“So you don’t always get that demanding on the first date?” Nathan asked.

Jack laughed. “I have a type. An alpha male who has as much to risk by publicizing our bedroom activities as I do. But, demanding...no. I let things happen and don’t stop them. There is a difference in indulging in something and handing out a list of fantasies. I never get on my hands and knees, wiggle my ass, and say fuck me like this. I’m vocal, yes, but not instructive. I don’t know how to explain it. You had me at a place where I felt like I was on the edge of something so great that I had to have it. I just wanted more.”

“That’s very much how I felt when I bit you. I had to have more.” Nathan kissed his chest as he played with his hair. “I have no regrets other than turning you into an immortal monster. I lost control and bit you, then I didn’t hesitate to turn you.”

“I was already into men.”

“I think I’m going to stake myself.” Nathan groaned, but he smiled. Because Jack knew what to say to lighten the mood while he played with his hair.

“Do you always make other vampires on one night stands?” 

“The thing is, this isn’t a one night stand. This is eternity. This is every night forever.”

“Well, I guess I’m about to find out what other kinks I have.”

“I’m serious, Jack. Forever doesn’t sink in until you’ve seen your civilization rise and fall. Once powerful Gods become folklore, fading to dust with their crumbled temples. Everything crumbles, except you. And nothing changes. The cycle repeats. People never change. War. Greed. Destruction. Anything good torn down.” Nathan closed his eyes as Jack massaged his scalp with his fingertips. Sympathy. From a man he condemned to this hell. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Yeah, we were supposed to have dinner.”

“Jack….” Nathan wished he’d be mad, but it would take time for the comprehension to sink in. 

“Can you touch my neck again? Pretty please?”

“It’s a possessive mark. It never goes away.” Nathan repeated. “Everything else does.” 

“No then?” Jack said as Nathan picked up his head and gave him an annoyed look he was so used to. It made him smile. 

“I _need_ to talk his out, Jack. I feel compelled to tell you the truth. Two thousand years and I never…” Nathan was silenced by Jack’s kiss. 

“How about now?” Jack asked with a grin, but he was not getting the playful smile in return. Nathan was taking this hard. Jack understood it, he understood it in his entire being, like there weren’t words that really captured what was happening. Its why he had a need to make him feel better.

Nathan pouted. Because he didn’t deserve this feeling he was getting from Jack. The empathy. However it made him feel better, despite himself, and he couldn’t help but relax a little. 

Jack looked at him, guilt lingered in his eyes. Time to talk science and make him feel better. “Does it go away? The way it feels when you touch my bite?”

“No. Now that you’re one of us, the mark never goes away or the way you react to the person that gave it to you.” Nathan said. “In fact, you can feel it throb when my heart rate is up. I think you already do, which doesn’t make sense. It’s too soon.”

“Tell me how an infection, a blood disease, makes me damned near orgasm because you touch a bite on my neck?” Jack asked. “How does  _ that  _ happen? And why haven't you bottled it and sold it, to pay for all the stuff you want at GD?”

“We really don’t know. We think it’s about magnetism in the blood. The iron in hemoglobin. The hemoglobin carries oxygen. Hemoglobin is diamagnetic and repelled by magnetism because of it’s unpaired electrons and…” Nathan stopped and closed his eyes as Jack kissed his neck. 

“Can I bite you?”

“You can physically bite me, yes. But it won’t leave a mark because I regenerate. You’re marked because you were human when I bit you.”

“Shame.” Jack said. “Because it’s pretty awesome. Do you guys have special dentists?”

“Maybe we should talk about this when you’re not high on my blood.” Nathan said.

“Maybe we should shower because everything is really sticky.” Jack said and kissed Nathan again. “And you should clean my wound. I hear it's infected.”

“Maybe we should take a bath so you don’t fall in the shower and die before you are immortal.” Nathan offered but felt playful again. This was not the euphoria. This was all Jack Carter.

“I’m sorry it took so long to admit I wasn’t jealous of how amazing you are and that I genuinely wanted you for being so amazing. So, so sorry.” Jack chirped. 

“I'm not. This is one reveal that goes pretty badly when you spring the surprise on someone you’re involved with for a while.” Nathan said and shrugged. "Always comes across as a relationship built on a lie."

“Well, I'm lying here so whatever you want to surprise me with I'm game." Jack said and wiggled against him again. "Maybe another little bite?"

“This will take time to wear off. I should take you home.” Nathan threatened, feeling the weight of the situation lifting from his shoulders. Somehow. Because that’s what Jack did.

“Nooo..” Jack whined. “I don’t have a real shower. No water. No you.”

“Call in sick next week. Call me when you come to your senses.” Nathan smiled and Jack hugged him hard.

“Nooooooooooo.” Jack whined. 

“This is definitely the artifact rectifying things. You’re going to make me kill myself.” Nathan snorted with amusement.

“Nathan!” Jack whined. “Stop making me jealous of the artifact!”

“It’s done something to you. It changed you. Somehow. You should be damned near catatonic right now, but you’re just your normal level of bouncy Carter.” Nathan said. “I’m seriously worried about what _it_ changed and what _I just did_ to you might not mix well.”

“Well, that would suck.” Jack said. "So how about we get back to sucking..."

Nathan kept talking, lest he be drawn him by Jack's tempting offers. “I need you to go somewhere for a little while where I can monitor your progress. I can have S.A.R.A.H. do that. As you turn into a vampire, your body fights it and it will appear that you’re ravaged with fever and sick. If you stay here, there will be too many questions. I don't need accusations of doing harm to you getting in my way of helping you. I also need to work on figuring this out.”

“I’ll….” Jack looked at him as he realized he was being sent home. “See you again, right?”

“You’re never going to die.” Nathan reminded him.

“I mean, like this.” Jack said. “We never did have dinner.”

“I know.” Nathan said. “I just blew past everything and you don’t even know me.”

“Well, I don’t exactly jump right into 'fuck me like a dog' on the first date.” Jack huffed, annoyed with how horny he was when there was obviously a situation at hand. “God, I just hit the bed and let loose. I don’t even think I’ve thought about that position in years. Hell, it was ruined for me by Abby when we were fooling around once and she made a comment about how I 'wanted to be the submissive because I was always in charge at work'. Sex life was never the same. Couldn’t trust her after that. Why the hell am I telling you this?”

“You’re going to have a hard time lying to me.” Nathan informed him and Jack's expression made him smile. He was fighting this so he could help him. 

“Fantastic.” Jack said and Nathan kissed him, gently. An apology. Maybe? Or sympathy?

“You rarely lie to me though.” Nathan said. “Except that time Ally showed up wearing the same clothes from the day before, I can’t think of a single time you lied to me. It's why I was so sure that you were not interested in me. People have micro-expressions and heart rate fluctuations they can’t hide from me when they lie.”

“I get that, law enforcement, remember? Well, I wasn’t really lying about Allison. She fell asleep on my bed when she came over to check on my broken ribs after I went off that bridge with Carlson. However, I couldn’t say ‘I didn’t sleep with your wife’ because I kinda did? Beside her?”

“Enough talk about her. Let’s clean up and get some dinner." Nathan offered. " If you want to stay and aren’t compelled to stay.”

“I want to. I want to hear about you and Archimedes and your trip to Egypt. And that kilt you said you had. Wow, you've lived through so much. ” Jack said. “Hey, did you know that Polidori guy who wrote the hot vampire book?”

“Unfortunately. The Polidori fiasco was not my mess. That was Christopher trying to get in Lord Byron’s pants and fucking up royally.” Nathan sighed. “However I almost made the same mistake with Ally and now I’m worried that she’s going to handle this poorly.”

“Oh.” Jack said. “Yeah, I can see that. I can see why. This was great.”

“I have a lot to do, Jack. I’ll fake some experiment gone wrong. I think I can rig one of my robots to have fangs, we’ll have to get creative about why it bit you. A virus, computer virus. Maybe a hacking. Halloween prank. I have an A.N.D.Y. model who keeps having an existential crisis, I can use him. That will explain your bite. It’s too inflamed to cover up with cosmetics. That gives me time to work. I’ve got to figure out why you’re reacting like this and make sure you’re not going to have adverse effects because of your previous Artifact exposure.”

“I won’t.” Jack assured him, 100% certain of it.

“I’m the doctor, maybe you should leave that to me?” Nathan drawled, finding his sass returning.

“Well, _Doctor_ , you were exposed to the Artifact too.” Jack pointed out. “Or have you forgotten about it blowing up  _ in your face _ ?”

Nathan narrowed his eyes at him. Shit. He was right.

“What exactly is, or was, the Artifact?” Jack asked and found himself truly enjoying this. Just talking. Just watching Nathan relax and share. Just trusting him.

“I don’t know.” Nathan said. “I was hoping that it would be the power needed for the Astraeus spaceship, but that’s no longer an option. I believe it was the light in the Alexandria Lighthouse for years. I never found out how it was removed from the lighthouse or when it went dark. At some point they put a furnace up there, but I was never able to find out if Aristarchus of Samothrace, the head librarian, had something to do with it."

"This is so cool!" Jack said. "You knew the guy who was the director of the Library of Alexandria!"

"Not him, one of his predecessors, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, was who who I dealt with when Christopher and I went there." Nathan remembered the guy. A great mind. 

"So you just went looking for this dude after a couple hundred years? Because he checked something out of the Library?" Jack asked, regurgitating the story in his own way to make Nathan smile at him. Smile at him just like _that._

Nathan smiled, appreciating the humor of the deliver and Jack's appreciation for history. Facts. Truth. They weren't so unalike, after all. "You have to understand that, at the time, it didn't seem important. Only with hindsight, and the fact that it kept resurfacing over the years, did it end up being something I focused on."

"So you found it?" Jack asked. "You found the Artifact?"

"I tried. I spent time in Cyprus trying to find out what happened to Aristarchus of Samothrace because I thought he'd have the key to it all. Directors of the library would surely share the secrets of what they did to keep the knowledge safe. I wanted to find out what happened to everything, but arrived too late. News travelled slow, travel was slow. People I interviewed on Cyprus only thought of him as a exiled hobo. Everyone only remarked on his excellent memory and shitty appearance and how much they didn't really like him. I spent years thinking that was a statement of how he could not have salvaged anything from the library, because he had nothing at all, but I think it might mean he memorized the entire thing. Or the Artifact found a home in him ,somehow. Who would go looking for this guy? Only me, apparently. And it was all dead ends. I moved on."

"To where?" 

"I feel like maybe we should move to the shower." Nathan said and Jack just seemed to soak up the information and enjoy it. 

“Wait. Back up. You're building a spaceship?” Jack asked. 

“Not yet. Eventually.” Nathan said. “Being Immortal we’ll outlive this planet. Being human, earth’s population has sped up the death of this planet. Being scientists, we’ve started to prepare options.”

“I hate flying.”

Nathan smirked. “I’ll keep that in mind when I design the stabilization system.”

“So, not dreaming of world domination so much as….saving it?”

“Not everyone. I can only save so many and they’ll have to be the best of the best. Eureka is proving that even the world’s greatest minds are hardly the shining examples of the species.” 

“Wow.”

“So a shower and dinner? Save some of your questions for later?” Nathan offered.

“That’s a start.” Jack said and touched Nathan again, needing to feel him. “Why do I feel so clingy?”

“It’s the euphoria. It enables me to keep feeding on you if _you’re_ dinner.” Nathan said. “A lot of evolutionary pieces were pulled together in the serum to keep us alive. The best of other species.”

“No, that’s not it. I don’t feel like I couldn’t walk away from you, I just feel….” Jack bit his lip as he searched for the right word. “Like this is familiar? I feel a level of comfort with you that makes it seem like we’ve been together for years. Like this is home.”

“Maybe if you feed it will snap you out of this.” Nathan said and kissed Jack. He didn’t realize how much he had come to rely on Jack to solve problems too. “Why did you trust me?”

“We’ve worked together for a year. We work well together?”

“You accused me of murder an hour ago.” Nathan reminded him. “This is fast, even for you.”

“Well, you told me the truth and, when you said it, it sounded absurd.” Jack snapped his fingers. “Occam’s razor! What was more plausible? That you would admit to being a vampire or that you were covering up something at GD?”

“You’re so quick to accept the truth. You move on so quick…”

“You do too. I prove you wrong or that I need help and you put aside everything and do it. I love to work with you. I can count on you. Unfortunately you usually cause the problems to begin with, but you mean well. Sometimes.”

“Let’s get you washed up and have dinner. I think some red meat might help you get out of the haze. I need you to work with me on this because I don’t understand what’s happening right now.” Nathan said. 

“You feel it too, don't you?” Jack asked. “Like we’ve been here before?”

“I feel a connection with you that I’ve never felt with anyone in all the time I’ve been alive. I think it’s the Artifact.” Nathan said. “It connected to Carlson, he saved you with it. It was reaching out to Kevin. It tapped into us.”

Jack rolled over as Nathan got out of bed and reached out to him to help him up. “I’m feeling like it’s Deva Vu all over again.”

“You’re lucky I know that's a baseball reference and that you’re not abusing that term or you would not be getting the level of attention I intend to provide in the shower.”

“I thought we were taking a bath?”

“Changed my mind. I’m hungry.” Nathan said and winked. “I’ll keep you up, I promise.”

Jack took his hand and let him pull him off the bed into his arms, looking at that smile the entire time. He pulled him into a kiss and dismissed his feelings that they had been here before, because there was no way he’d ever forget this.

* * *

“Stop eating that!” Nathan said and slapped Jack’s hand with a spatula as he tried to steal another piece of perfectly cooked steak. 

“I told you, I don’t want sauce on it.” Jack said and flicked a piece of meat off the plate so he could retrieve it off the countertop and eat it. “I thought I was supposed to want red meat, not red meat drowned in smoothie. ”

Nathan took the spatula and pointed it at Jack’s hand where sauce was now splattered “Taste it.”

“Is this some kind of euphemism for what sauce I’m going to be licking off your meat after dinner?” Jack smirked and got hit with the spatula, again.

“No.” Nathan said and pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand as his right returned to making sure the sauce didn’t burn. “As much as I appreciated the show of your blow job skills in the shower, I am genuinely just trying to feed you a damned steak. You need to eat. Your body is going to need the nutrients to deal with your change. So taste the sauce. Please.”

Jack made a show of sensually licking the sauce off his hand, and then halfway through realized it really was delicious. It tasted familiar though, and he could confidently say he never allowed sauce on his steak. Must have been something Vincent used? “ That  _ is  _ good.”

“Thank you.” Nathan turned off the burner and poured the sauce over what remained of the perfectly cooked, sliced, rare steaks. 

“Where did you learn to make that?” Jack asked, licking his hand again, this time with less flair and more effectiveness.

“France.”

“Not Café Diem?”

“Nope. Vincent does not share recipes, nor do I.”

Jack leaned against the counter and Nathan handed him a plate. They locked eyes for a moment and Jack couldn't help but say, “This feels really natural. I’m really comfortable with you. I’m not sure why. Don’t take that the wrong way, it’s just really...fast.”

Nathan looked over at the dining room table and shook his head. He couldn’t ignore the feeling either. “I’ve never felt at home here. I’ve never felt a warmth in this house or this feeling like I could count on things to be like this tomorrow. Ally and I always remained separate. She never hovered around me like you do, questioning and learning. I served her and she served me papers. I always felt like this was a house and not a home. But right now, I feel…”

“Like this is  _ our normal _ ?” Jack asked. “Despite never doing this before.”

“It’s just the bite giving you false comfort.”

“Is it?” Jack asked. “Where is that in the vampire lore? One bite and suddenly it’s domestic bliss, like we’re in some 50’s era slice of life show?”

“What other explanation is there?” Nathan asked and went to the table and sat down, Jack sat down next to him instead of at the other end. Like they just fell into place. 

“I’ve tasted this before.” Jack said and wolfed down his meat. “I’ve tasted you before.”

“Vincent is definitely not serving up  _ that _ .”

Jack smirked at him and waved his fork around at Nathan’s crotch and then his mouth. “All of you. Your kiss, too. I might not be a connoisseur of fine steak sauces but I have a great memory for flavors. Smells. Feelings.”

“Did you just call this a  _ steak sauce _ ?” Nathan asked, appalled. Jack used it as an opportunity to stab a few pieces off his plate and snag them for himself. He had to admit, the intimacy of that move felt...practiced.

Jack finished chewing. “So, if we have all eternity together, why does it feel like this isn’t the first life we’ve known each other? Am I reincarnated? Is this like  _ The Mummy _ ?”

“I don’t know.” Nathan said. “But I know who to ask.”

“You said you were going to tell Ally?” Jack asked.

“She’s not  _ that _ read-in on vampires.” Nathan said as he thought Jack was still on topic of  _ them. _ Nope. Already off somewhere else from the look in his eye. 

“Why did she suggest this Halloween project at Tesla?” Jack asked. “Seems weird, right? I mean, GD only gives internships to kids who have been working on their Nobel prize winning research instead of macaroni pictures in Kindergarten, and she’s going to award an internship to create the  _ X-files _ ? In the one place nobody believes in ghosts?”

Nathan watched him as he put his fork down, mind back to unraveling the mystery. Mind too clear for someone who almost drowned in the shower after having his bite licked clean. “You think she did it as a way to get at me? She wouldn’t risk Kevin like that.”

Jack looked at him. “You said Kevin had a connection to the Artifact?”

“Yeah, the way he thinks is on a whole different level. I think it connected to him because it found someone with the processing capacity to communicate with it. “ Nathan cocked his head. “Where are you going with this?”

“Back to the beginning. What triggered this investigation. That project, neatly displayed on the table in my house, sent me chasing after you.”

“Literally _everyone_ saw how good we were together, except you.” Nathan reminded him. 

“We’ll tackle my denial later, right now I want to know why this project was green-lighted.” Jack said. “Is this really the kind of thing you would want highlighted on your resume as Director of Global Dynamics? ‘Created Liaison position with Tesla High school to start the Ghostbusters Division’?”

“Me, no. Ally…” Nathan reached out for his drink and swirled it around, allowing the Scotch to breath and give himself a chance to think. “No. Not unless it was something for Kevin.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. 

“Well, this is going to be a fun conversation.” Nathan said. “Hey honey, any chance you abused your power as director of GD to have Tesla students gather information on supernatural phenomena so you could better communicate with your autistic son using unconventional methods? Maybe get some new information on your ex-husband so you could get the knowledge he won’t give you? Oh..about that! It worked! The local Sheriff followed the lead, right to my bed and I impaled him on my dick and bit him, giving him immortality and multiple orgasms. We’re sort of a thing now, collect your bets and any thoughts you had of capitalizing on that love triangle’.”

“I’m not surprised you guys didn’t have a warm, welcoming home life.” Jack said with a smile as Nathan drank his scotch and shrugged. 

“Got to be direct or she gets suspicious and leaves.” Nathan huffed. “Alright, I’ll ask.”

“Am _ I  _ being too suspicious?”

“Nope.” Nathan said and popped the ‘p’. “Ally definitely does not do anything she cannot benefit from. And this started  _ with her _ .”

Jack thought about it and shook his head. “No, she wasn’t expecting this. She was genuinely scared for her and Kevin when I joked about being on to you.”

Nathan ran his tongue along the inside of his lip, feeling the ridges of skin that had closed around the puncture marks from his fangs. He was feeling set up, but the question was, by whom? 

“You think you were set up.” Jack said and Nathan’s eyes lit up. “It’s not telepathy, it’s just the obvious conclusion.”

“Yeah, sure.” Nathan didn’t believe that. 

“So, uh, any other vampires I need to know about? Other than Henry and Dactlyos? Ones that might have it out for you? Maybe disappointed the Artifact didn’t kill you and disappointed you stayed in Eureka?”

“I appreciate you wanting to investigate this further, but this is something I need to handle.” Nathan said. 

“As in?”

“As in this could devolve into a fight, fast. You’re not immortal, yet. I won’t risk you getting hurt or them determining that I overstepped and that this is a mistake that needs to be rectified.” Nathan stood up and threw his napkin on the table. “You need to go home. Where you’re safe in the security of the bunker. Where I can monitor your health to make sure this Artifact interference doesn’t cause complications. I also need you sealed up, in a hermetically sealed bunker, so that I won’t be compromised by my connection to you.”

“Nooooo.” Jack gasped, realizing what that meant. “The bunker.. _ you made the bunker to seal up vampires! _ ?”

“Jack, I made a lot of things. But yes, the bunker was designed to be an isolation chamber. You know, something we already talked about with BRAD.”

“But...this is different. This isn’t about interrogation, this was about having a safe room.”

“It was about both.” Nathan shrugged. “I put a back door on everything that allows me to benefit from it. Governments, short-term; my needs long-term. The DOD got a project, I got a place to stop the assault on my senses. Christopher has a sealed chamber under his workshop, Henry has his garage. I now have my lab. You’ll be thankful for the bunker, the heightened sense of everything can be overwhelming.”

“Is that why bats hide in caves?”

“I’m not a bat.” Nathan picked up his plate to take it to the sink. “However, the ‘vampire bat’ thing took shape because some of our kind did find sanctuary in caves.”

“I have so many questions.” Jack said. “Did you programming a blind spot in SARAH, so when I asked her about vampires she’d glitch?”

“Yes. I wanted my position at GD to control information. SARAH would pick up on my vitals if I didn’t.”

“And to monitor me, you have to put her vamp-googles back on?” Jack asked.

“Yes, so to speak.”

“So, can she catch me up on all this information?”

“We don’t record our history.” Nathan said as Jack brought over his plate and stood close to him. Like they were lovers, like they had been together for more than two hours. “Documentation is too risky. It’s what led to us finding this serum formula to begin with.”

“So I…” Jack leaned up against him and smiled. “Have to wait on you to tell me everything. In that sexy scientist voice of yours?”

Nathan cocked an eyebrow. “I have a sexy scientist voice now?”

“You get this light sound in your voice, you really enjoy the way things work. Seeing things work, so you can use it to fix problems. I wrote it off as joy at saving the world, but I admit now I found it really exciting for different reasons.”

Nathan pulled him against him and kissed him. “I can’t wait.”

“So, you’re coming over tonight?” Jack asked and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Someone’s got to help you with the pain of your transition.” Nathan said. “I’ll give you the orientation while…”

“I give you oral?”

Nathan licked his lips. “I think we already found out in the shower that I can’t articulate a sentence when you’re doing that.”

“At least I finally know how to get you to shut up.”

“Jack, I need to go. We need to go.” Nathan said. “I need answers. Your life may be at stake here.”

“Someone really wanted to win the betting pool.” Jack said and looked at the clock on the wall. “Lupo’s not in on this, is she?”

“Not unless Taggart finds a way to turn her.”

“Taggart's  _ a vampire _ !?”

“A werewolf.” Nathan explained. “Did you ever wonder why he always turns up naked in the mornings?”

“I just accepted that as who he was.” Jack admitted. “I accepted a lot of things about this place I have to reconsider.” 

“Well, he came at the serum from a different angle and only used one species. Which fractured his being into human and dog. So, part of him is Taggart you know and the other part is Lo-Jack.”

“No way!” Jack said. 

“He genuinely has no idea why he’s always chasing that dog and it’s because the dog has a good portion of his soul. It’s less about changing into a wolf, than having a familiar. Two bodies sharing one mind. That’s what happens when you separate the blood into two bodies instead of combining it for a reaction of one.”

“So much...makes sense about him now.” Jack said then frowned. "Except the nudity."

“On that note, I have to go meet with my exs.” Nathan said and kissed Jack’s forehead. It was already hard to pull himself away from him. “I’ll activate SARAH’s programming. I’ll call you when I’m on my way over.”

“I’ll miss you.” Jack said. “It actually hurts thinking about it.”

“I know.” Nathan admitted “Me too.”

“I don’t blame you.”

“You will.” Nathan assured him.

"No, this feels right." Jack said. "Be careful, Sheriffing isn't your part of this partnership."

"I'll manage." Nathan said and pulled him in close and kissed him, a deep and powerful kiss; enough to savor and help him last a few hours before seeing him again.


	6. Underworld

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied. There is going to be another chapter after this. I'm sorry I'm like this.

_ Trick or Treat _

Chapter 6

**Underworld**

* * *

Nathan barely managed to pull himself off of Jack long enough to shove the man in his Jeep and tell him to go home. He felt young again; he felt like Jack’s laughter and roaming hands brought him back to a time when he was young and fearless and _completely human_. Before he had become jaded and disappointed in humanity, before he had lived long enough for the joys of life to dull. He felt a bit of excitement build, not because of activities they might get into, but because he might finally have someone to breathe life back into his world. 

And that was a stupid feeling because tuning Jack into an immortal would only bring him pain and suffering. It would only deny Nathan the chance to find out if they could have been something. Soon, all too soon, Jack would experience the pain and the realization that those he loved would die before him. 

Jack, however, with his touch and affection, managed to make him forget that when they were together. It baffled him. How he could be deluded by the power of his touch. When they were apart, he could think more clearly about the predicament he created, but still longed for him.. He still  _ ached _ for him. He still wanted to chase him down as the rhythm of his heartbeat faded into the distance as he drove home. 

It was a rush of excitement and fear he hadn’t felt in years. He hated how much he wanted this, how quickly it happened, and how many scenarios he easily thought of where this backfired. He texted Henry a ‘ _ Meet me @ Dactylos’s ASAP _ ’ and got in his car. Then he sent Chris a text: ‘ _ New development. Be there in 10 _ .’ He was sure he’d get grief for sending those as orders, but he wasn’t up for a debate or the frustration of scheduling things at more convenient times. He needed answers now.

Thankfully the Sheriff wasn’t thinking clearly either, or he would have realized that he was definitely going to speed in order to get to Chris’s place. Jack’s questions from earlier were beginning to come back to him. About the Artifact explosion. About Carlson. About Kim. 

He had yet to tell Christopher anything about the origins of the Artifact, or rather where he had traced the damned thing back to. He was sure the Artifact was ancient, perhaps timeless. He knew it held knowledge, that it could communicate, that it could heal. He also knew it could kill, it could vanish and it chose who it wanted to deal with. He didn’t know why it blew up, why it killed Kim and not him, and why it chose Jack Carter of all people.

Not that he blamed it, he had also been won over by the man. By his unique approach, by his deductive abilities, by his focus on truth. By his honesty, his warmth, by his ability to embrace a feeling and run with it. Even if it meant running into danger, or the arms of a man he spent the last ten months fighting with.

How he admired his ability to admit he was wrong and how quickly he rectified it.

He arrived at Chris’s still thinking about Jack and not about the Artifact. He parked and banged his head back against the headrest, trying to knock some sense into himself. This was ridiculous, he knew better than to get wrapped up in this right now. Jack was in for a rough few days and he was definitely going to lash out at him for this. He was too rational right now, he was probably in shock. Once he got home, he’d look at his daughter and realize what immortality really cost.

Nathan took a deep breath, grabbed his phone and accessed S.A.R.A.H. 's permissions via GD’s mainframe. After the B.R.A.D. incident, Nathan made sure that he had override access to S.A.R.A.H., even though he never told her resident that. Lucky for Jack, he wasn’t the voyeur that Fargo was and had the intention to only use his access for emergencies. It would be easier to get into S.A.R.A.H.’s programming instead of the GD database, and keep things cleaner. So he enabled her, and her alone, to see Jack, and himself, for what they really were. He set her notifications to send to his phone and all he got in return was a string of little heart-eye emojis.

Damned house spent too much time with a teenage girl. 

_ Wait _ . There was more. Were those eggplant emojis? No, that was  _ definitely _ Fargo's influence. 

Jack’s health and well being monitored, he moved on to his next task: breaking the news to his small circle of jaded compatriots. Henry hadn’t arrived yet, so it gave him time to try and get the bickering out of the way with Christopher. He got out of his car and walked over to the shack has ex-boyfriend liked to work in: always nostalgic for the past. He didn’t bother to knock, the door hardly looked sturdy enough to withstand it. So he walked in and apparently caught Chris putting some finishing touches on his work.

“Oh, just come in. No longer the director but you still think you own the place.” Christopher said and wiped his hands off as Nathan walked in his shop without being invited. “I told you I would update you on progress with the Artifact. I don’t know why I thought you’d be respectful or patient with me now that you’re not my boss.”

“Henry’s on his way.” Nathan said and made a show of looking around at Christopher’s sculptures. Sure he could have sent a group text, but that would have removed the plausible deniability of the meeting. The cryptic nature of the individual texts was just because he wanted to be an ass. 

“Oh, it’s  _ that _ kind of meeting.” Chris said and threw his rag down and went to take off his apron. “Vampire business. On Halloween, how cute. Did you wear your slutty little costume again and finally give in to your wife?” 

“Ex-wife. And no.” Nathan looked at Christopher as he came over to him. “As for the Artifact, I don’t think it’s dead.”

“First law of thermodynamics says that you’re probably right.” Chris said and hung up his apron. “The question is, where did the energy go? What form did it take? You had first hand experience with it and aren’t sharing.”

“I think it dispersed...into humans.” Nathan said. 

“Oh? You think that much energy can be contained in a human vessel. Not likely.” Christopher was close enough to smell him. Smell the scent of someone _ on him _ despite his attempts to wash it off with scent killing soap. Someone male. “ _ Oh _ . So, this is about who  _ you  _ got into.”

Nathan rolled his eyes as Christopher made a show of smelling him. Of course showering may have washed off the scent of sex, but he and Jack didn’t exactly stay off each other during dinner; How close he was, the kiss goodbye. The scent of arousal on Jack’s uniform that would remain until it was dry cleaned. There was no denying it and no reason to. “Jack Carter.”

“You couldn't have waited until Wednesday?” Chris snorted and stepped back and busied himself with putting away art supplies so they didn’t dry up. 

“I bit him.” Nathan continued.

Christopher rolled his eyes. “Leave me out of this. I’m not hiding bodies for you, especially of the Sheriff. “

“No.” Nathan said and looked at all the mobiles and various displays of artwork hanging from the ceiling. Tributes to styles of the past, most lost to history because humans destroyed as they conquered. Chris never forgave or forgot that loss. “I turned him.”

Chris dropped his chisel and looked Nathan dead in the eye. “You  _ did what _ ?”

“I bit him and, “ Nathan pulled down his lip to show where he used his own fangs to bite his lip and bleed. “Bit myself and kissed him. I turned him.”

“Jack?” Henry said, from the doorway, arriving just as Nathan made his announcement. 

“I lost control.” Nathan admitted. Jack and Henry were friends, he would undoubtedly be offended on his behalf. Yet Henry was oddly not upset. Weird. He didn’t believe in making more immortals, he was adamant about this being a curse. Yet Jack...was approved?

“Please. We both know there is more to the process than that.” Chris shook his head. “Maybe the bite, but the rest was  _ all you. _ ”

“How did that happen?” Henry asked. “Have you two been seeing each other?”

“No. He came to my place to accuse me of being a vampire and I told him the truth.” Nathan said. “Then he accused me of being a murderer and said he’d call Mansfield. I wasn’t ready to leave Eureka, I felt like he’d expose me and Kevin might be in danger, so I got angry. Teeth came out. He…didn’t freak out.”

“So, naturally, you fucked him.” Chris added.

“No...I mean, yes we did, but I didn’t bite him  _ like that _ . It wasn’t like I showed fangs and attacked him.” Nathan said and ran his hand through his hair. “We talked. He was curious, not afraid. I’ve always been attracted to him. I didn’t intend to bite him but....”

“So, you lost control? A frenzy of passion?” Chris asked. 

“Can you stop interrupting?” Nathan looked straight at him. They had been through a lot of ‘mistaken bites’ through the years, often having to clean up each other's mistakes. The early years, they thought they could save people and their world, but only realized how powerless they were against the numbers of the conquerors. How powerless they were to the ebb and flow of time, which took away the peak of intellectualism they had yet to see again. But, they were biased. “Yes, I lost control but..”

Chris looked at him, expecting an answer. Expecting an explanation. Expecting justification.

Nathan relented. He would get no help if he didn’t tell him everything. “He asked me to bite him and I lost control at that point.”

“Sheriff has a kinky side.” Christopher said. “Explains why he gets off on running into danger.”

“Stop.” Nathan said. He was used to the mocking, but for some reason he felt himself getting angry about him mocking Jack. Ironic.

“Oh, protective already.” Christopher felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck, Nathan was getting pissed. Interesting.

“I’m humoring you, but this is very personal.” Nathan hissed, trying to keep his breathing calm.

“You always found it more intimate than it was. We’re all just animals, Nathan. Humans too. Sex, especially.” Christopher said. 

Nathan looked at him and coldly said. “It is,  _ to me. _ ”

“So this is more about justifying the newly christened vampire into the club.” Chris shrugged. “Better to ask forgiveness than permission, huh? Not even going to try and give me a reason why he’s an asset, just that you couldn’t resist  _ his ass _ .”

“No.” Nathan said. “This is not  _ just _ about who I has sex with. I don’t know if he’s genuinely that way in bed or if the Artifact had some influence.”

“You want to blame  _ the Artifact _ for making the Sheriff beg you to bite him in bed?” Chris asked, incredulously, and laughed. “It’s the crispy husk of Truth and Knowledge, not some aphrodisiac for turning a man into a cat in heat! God Nathan, you’re not thinking with the right head.”

“We don’t know anything about Carlson’s interaction with it, or what he changed in Carter when he healed him.” Nathan said. 

“Carlson made him want to fuck you. Yeah. That’s it.” Chris laughed and then shook his head and threw up his hands. “Nevermind, _this is Eureka_. This whole town wants to fuck you. I guess Carlson could have transferred some ideas into Carter that he didn’t want to have to answer for in the afterlife. ”

Nathan rolled his head back and looked at the ceiling. He was going to go on and on about this all night if he didn’t get him back to the real reason he was here. “We don’t know what it did to me when it blew up. Or what it’s going to do now that our blood is mixed and it’s in both of us. I’m worried about Jack.”

“Sorry to interrupt, but what does this have to do with the Artifact?” Henry asked. 

“Too much.” Nathan admitted. “However I think we should take this downstairs.”

“I told you, I haven’t made much progress.” Christopher said and went to the trap door that descended to his lab. “But clearly you know more than you’re telling me if you’re afraid that your new boyfriend might spontaneously combust because of it. So, yes, enlighten us.”

“What _progress_?” Henry asked knowing what that implied. “You mean you gave  _ him _ access to the Artifact, to Kim’s work, but denied me the opportunity?”

“It was too soon, Henry.” Nathan said and Chris opened the door and punched in the code as Henry walked up and looked at him fiercely.

“And you do love to make the decisions for everyone, don’t you?” Henry spat.

“Your anger only proves me right.” Nathan replied.

“And you think  _ an alchemist _ was the right choice?” Henry asked. “Do you really believe it’s magic? Do you really think his pseudoscience is what’s going to reveal its origins and power? Do you think it reverted from Gold to Lead? What answers did you really want, Nathan? Because it looks like: none.”

“I am _ right here _ !” Christopher chirped as he opened the access point and started to climb down. He wasn’t offended, one day he would be able to smugly look at them and say he was right. “I’m also an alchemist, I turn a blind eye to your ‘modern ideas’, I’m not  _ deaf.  _ Assholes.”

“You’re also keeping your head buried in the past and ignoring  _ the enlightenment _ of modern science.” Henry fired back. “Choosing to dwell on the occult rather than embrace centuries of progress.”

“Modern science is not that enlightened.” Chris said before vanishing below. He hollered up, “And fuck you both.”

Henry turned to Nathan and asked the simplest question. “Does Jack know he’s a vampire now?” 

“Yes.” Nathan said. “He’s gone home to change clothes and make sure Zoe got home ok. S.A.R.A.H. will monitor him for any biological changes. I’m genuinely concerned about a reaction between the Artifact and the infection.”

Henry didn’t say another word, just went down to the basement. When he got down there, Christopher was sitting at his desk and looking through some paperwork. He wasn’t upset with them, the man truly enjoyed being an outcast and mocked for his lack of desire to conform. The three of them made a good team, representatives of past, present and future focus. It helped them from being lost in the shuffle of time.

Nathan followed him and descended the ladder quickly, knowing Chris would shut the door fast in hopes of snagging a hand or something. And he did. He looked around, Christopher had transmutation circles sketched in chalk, ancient symbols of the past used to scribble out formulas on chalkboards around the room. One formula however, was not ancient. Henry had already focused on it.

“Like I said, I haven’t made much progress..” Chris stood up after he closed the hatch to his lab, and looked over at his artifact work. “I guess, we’ll figure out if the Sheriff has a connection to it while you soothe his aches and pains, which I’m sure he has because you’re hardly easy to just jump on. Modern advancements or not.”

“Can you stop being a bitch?” Nathan snapped. “I lost control. When has that ever happened? In all the time you have known me, when have I ever done this? In all the centuries you’ve known me? When have I _ ever _ impulsively turned someone?”

“Ok.” Chris sat back in his chair. “I’ll give you that.”

“And Jack has fought me from day one, and you think he’s going to just surrender to me like that?” Nathan said. “He was touched by the artifact when Carlson healed him and I felt power in him.”

“Now I kinda want to fuck him.” Chris chuckled.

“Stop.” Nathan said and felt the growl come from his very core. Yeah, he was definitely going to have to figure out how to deal with his possessiveness. Especially since Ally loved to flirt with Jack just to piss him off. Great. 

“Maybe the Artifact is equalizing things out.” Chris offered, realizing this was very real to Nathan. Realizing he might be pushing it too far. Still…”Maybe you turned him into the vampire hunter that wipes us out. Maybe he’s the antibody.” 

“I lost control.” Nathan kept repeating. “And he feels like he did too.”

“You _push_ something and it creates chaos where you least expect it.” Chris mused. 

“Don’t start quoting science at me...in a weirdly sexual way.” Nathan rubbed his temple. Christopher was so exhausting. 

“Why not? Sounds like you need to be grounded somehow.” Chris said. “Maybe, you should go ask your new boyfriend, you two figure out everything together. Oh, guess you’ll have to wait to unravel the mysteries of the universe until the euphoria wears off.”

“It’s worn off.” Nathan said. “I have a connection with him, faster than anyone I have ever turned. We both feel...like we’ve known each other for ages. I think the Artifact has somehow given us this feeling.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Christopher rolled his eyes. 

“No, it’s not.” Henry said.

“Why?” Nathan asked. He sounded so confident.

“Because this isn’t the first time you’ve been together.” Henry said. “Because I’ve been restarting the timeline trying to save Kim, and you created new timelines to try and save Jack. The Artifact is trying to rectify things, because in going back in time I have destabilized the very fabric of the universe.”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting _him_ to be the one who did that.” Chris said and sat back to find out exactly how he did it.

“I had to erase your memory, Nathan.” Henry told Nathan. “I couldn’t have both of us interfering.”

“What did you mean by ‘save Jack’?" Nathan asked, fear surging through him. This was what he was worried about. Losing him.

“It wasn’t because of a bite. Well...maybe it was. In the original timeline, you and Jack were together and he died because you refused to let Carlson take him to the Artifact. You were suspicious of Carlson’s research, because of the cellular regeneration being too similar to the serum. You loved Jack too much to risk exposing him to the Artifact, so you bit him as he was dying and it was too late.”

Nathan watched Henry go to a chalk board and draw out a line. He...had been with Jack before? That’s why they felt so at home with him? Their connection resonated through timelines?

“You tried to keep him alive with everything GD had to offer, keep his body alive long enough for the blood to turn him. However, it didn’t work.” Henry said. 

“Never does.” Chris mumbled. They had already learned that lesson on the battlefields. 

“So you found a way to use Walter Perkins’s tachyon accelerator research to reset things. You cause a split in time doing so. A new timeline. Time however, has momentum, and a creation of a new line needs to start rolling forward from a stand still. Time in this line moved slower, which you anticipated. It sent Jack to Eureka later than the original timeline.” Henry drew a line branching off the original to show the new line. “ He and Zoe even saw themselves leaving Eureka as they arrived, from the split in the first timeline when they were going back to L.A. for their things to move to Eureka. Jack went home to quit his job and transfer here. File for divorce. Talk about custody."

"That's not anywhere near what I remember." Nathan said.

"Well, the second timeline, when they got lost and drove into town, you had not arrived yet. What you didn’t anticipate was that you would be delayed at the airport because of weather. You arrived a week late, because you drove to town to avoid getting snowed in in Chicago.”

“And?” Nathan asked. This was exactly why he didn’t play with time travel. He knew the risks, he knew things could spiral out of control. He...had to have been devastated in order to consider it. After everyone he had lost in his life, Jack Carter had meant _that much_ to him that he finally tampered with time? He meant something to Jack, because he quit his job and was going to move to Eureka? What the hell happened to make them both...fall so hard so fast?

“And he met Allison before you.” Henry said and wrote it out on the board. “ He worked with her on the Perkins incident,  _ instead of you _ . When you arrived, he ignored your flirtations because he was fixated on her. He was forcibly transferred, and wanted to hate it here. He ignored you. You tried to wait it out and saved him with the Artifact to no avail. Then it blew up and killed Kim. You left for San Francisco, feeling like balance had been restored and a life was taken for the one you spared.”

“I knew better than to fuck with space time.” Nathan said and felt this ‘other Nathan’s’ pain. A pain that would make him abandon everything he worked for in Eureka and go to California, of all places. He must have really hated himself. 

“It doesn’t end there, does it?” Christopher asked. “One move, _created chaos everywhere_.”

“I took over GD so I could use the Artifact to reset the timeline and try again.” Henry said. “I erased the timeline by going back. I saved Kim, and saved you from the explosion Nathan. Then you lost your job, and lost Jack again...to Allison. You left for San Francisco once more, they ended up together, baby on the way, and the universe came apart. We had to call you in to help, and you were so bitter and angry at Allison and me. Jack was clueless. Allison, oddly enough, was not. I didn’t ask. You insisted that Jack had to be the one to go back, stop me from saving Kim. I should have asked what that was about but I was about to lose Kim again. And she was so disappointed in me. I honestly didn’t care. So Jack went back, to stop me and....allow the Artifact explode kill Kim.”

“Not earlier?” Nathan asked. “He went back just in time to stop you from saving her?”

“You didn’t want to erase the entire timeline. We were going to just put things on course, again.” Henry said. "Or so you said."

“With three people who already knew the future? Two of them, several timelines?” Nathan asked, confused at his own decision. “Why would I turn more people loose in the past in an effort to rectify things? Why was that the pivotal moment? ”

“The Artifact dictated the time.” Henry answered. “I used a piece of the dead Artifact to go back to that connection in time when it was made. It was a piece of the core, already created by the heat within the explosion. It was a piece tethered back to itself, and I could not go any further back than it's creation. I had less than a minute to save her before the Artifact made it past all the safeties and out of the chamber.”

“Some enlightened minds you two have.” Chris shook his head. “Never going to learn your lessons about playing God.”

“You didn’t answer how the three of us managed our memories.” Nathan asked and Henry drew yet another timeline. “Jack would have tried to get his life back. I would not given up and left.”

“I didn’t save Kim, so I couldn’t get you out either. You were injured, and when I visited you I wiped your memories.” Henry said. “I destroyed the universe. Kim was dead, again. You didn't need to make an attempt to get Jack back again because splitting the timeline from there would have left me without Kim. So, I erased all that. I erased Jack’s memories too, of a life he had with Allison and the baby he was going to have with her.”

“Why does this not feel like it’s going to be labelled, ‘current timeline’?” Chris asked.

“Because without his memories about his love for Jack, Nathan only had feelings.” Henry sighed. “Feelings he thought were for Allison.”

“Oh Nathan, you are so fucking stupid when you’re in love.” Chris lamented. “Let me guess, Jack gets sad and doesn’t save anyone because he’s alone.”

“Kevin ended up becoming the sole connection to the Artifact and we all had to save him. I went to jail. Nathan died saving the world from a time-loop on his wedding day to Allison.” Henry wrote that one down on the chalkboard. “Jack realized you two had something by the way you looked at him when you were dematerialized in space time in front of his eyes.”

“What starts the next timeline?” Nathan asked. “Obviously, you were able to backtrack further if I died.”

“Kevin.” Henry said and wrote the boy’s name on the board and circled it. It always came back to him.

“Cue new device to time travel , with a new person to screw it all up.” Chris started laughing as more timelines were drawn. “And _ I’m the idiot  _ for choosing to respect the laws of nature?”

“Kevin?” Nathan asked as he saw his son’s name on the board.

“He didn’t handle your loss well.” Henry said. “Jack stepped in to try and be a supportive friend for Allison and Kevin. Kevin, still had some connection to the Artifact even though I thought we disconnected him from it. He made his own tachyon accelerator using the plans he had memorized and connected to the original one from Jack's arrival in Eureka. He used it like a Einstein-Grant Bridge device.”

“Shouldn’t that have erased all your memories of these timelines?” Chris asked, following the flowchart.

“No, he helped him.” Nathan answered. He knew that the Tachyon Accelerator would not rewind time by itself. The Bridge device never worked and was an antique in the Eureka museum. The connection was to the Artifact. Which meant, Henry still had that piece of the Artifact’s future. He wouldn't risk handing it to Kevin in the event that blinked him out of existence upon arrival prior to it's creation. 

“I did.” Henry said. "Kevin retuned the piece to the Artifact...using Carlson. Carlson was never consumed by it that fast, he carried the piece back into the chamber. It's why there was a fluctuation in Carlson's lab, that got him fired and Jack and Carlson protected."

“Yeah, because why learn from your mistakes?” Christopher shrugged. “Why not drag someone else into this cycle of world destruction?”

“Kevin, seemed to know what to do.” Henry said and shook his head showing he was lost by how Kevin worked. “He knew where to go. What information to combine to make it happen. He knew that exact point to piece it all back together from all the fragments I made. Back to the original plan, the original timeline. I just didn’t know what that was, so I let it all happen this time.”

Nathan looked at him. “So Jack and I are familiar with each other because…”

“You were together, originally.” Henry said. “I just don’t know how far back the actual original timeline was. The Artifact pushed you together, namely with a ton of disasters that increased in frequency when Marshall Carter became Sheriff.” 

Christopher had to admit, “Eureka was never _ this  _ bad until he arrived. Numbers don’t lie.”

“So we worked together.” Nathan said, remembering how they went from rivals to something else.

“And you came together.” Henry said.

“Yeah they did.” Chris said with a smirk.

“Can you please stop.” Nathan said. 

“Balance, nature correcting itself. The course you were meant to travel, now is the one we’re on.” Christopher said. “The Artifact is terrestrial, it is of this Earth and wants to keep this Earth in existence. It’s self preservation. Stop fucking it up.”

“ Somehow, you two, do fix everything. “ Henry said. “Now he’s immortal and can continue fixing things with you.”

“Henry…” Nathan interrupted.

“You are your best when you’re with him and we all benefit.” Henry said. “I was selfish and tried to keep Kim for myself and the Artifact has shown me time and time again that it’s not for anyone else's good. I was so selfish, I refused to give her up when the world was destroying itself. I don’t deserve her. Her disappointment in me will never be something I forget.”

“How is this possible?” Nathan asked. “And...why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you make the worst decisions when you’re in love.” Henry said. “Like I do. So we trust the Artifact, this time. Why not?”

“Why?” Nathan asked. “With all this knowledge, why would we trust  _ it _ ?”

“What would be the point of creating something, if it wasn’t important?” Chris asked. “Or perfect?”

“Now is not the time for your alchemy lectures.” Nathan wished he would stop commenting for once.

“It’s exactly the right time. You always thought the future held all the answers and I believe in learning from the past.” Christopher reminded him. 

“Chris, your nostalgia gets the better of you.” Nathan reminded him. 

“Does it? History repeats itself.” he said. “We set out to make the perfect human and we only made ourselves selfish Gods with no people, no believers. This stupid town believed in you and him, there is power in that.”

“He’s right.” Henry said. “I tried to save Kim and the universe kept taking her away. You tried to save Jack and it failed. The Artifact explosion made no sense, unless it was to take her away and give something back in the same breath. Your survival, even as a vampire, makes no sense. The light alone should have been enough to char you to ash.”

“So what?” Chris asked. “The Artifact believes in his happiness and not yours?”

“Jack and Nathan are soulmates.” Henry said and both of them rolled their eyes. “I've seen it. I've seen what you two can do together. How it falls apart when you’re not together.”

“And you and Kim aren’t?” Nathan asked. “You two solved things _ in a day _ , together.”

“Too much knowledge, not enough balance?” Henry offered. “Taking her brilliance away, limited what we could do as humans. I did things we shouldn’t have done, like take away memories or travel in time. I used her research to do it. Imagine what she could have done with Eureka’s resources? Imagine how I would have abused it.”

“He's got a good point.” Christopher said. “Eureka is all about delivering power to the people who abuse it.”

“You told me  _ I  _ travelled in time.” Nathan kept looking at Henry, ignoring Christopher’s colorful and annoying commentary. 

“You created another timeline. You _created_ another universe.” Christopher chimed in.

“So that’s ok?” Nathan asked, turning to him. “That’s not selfish? That’s stupid.”

“Comprehension. Deconstruction. Reconstruction.” Christopher said.

“Would you stop with the Alchemist shit?” Nathan growled. Just when he was proving to be useful.

“No.” Chris said harshly.. “Because Henry broke the circle. He  _ destroyed _ a timeline. Without a piece of a fluid timeline, the universe started to destabilize. You have to do something with that energy, it doesn’t get erased. To play God, you make something from ingredients you don’t just make anything from thin air. To destroy it, you create something new. Erasing, making something cease to exist, goes against everything in alchemy and science.”

“ You  _ created _ a split in time. You wrongly thought Kim’s death was a rebound for your attempt to play God.” Henry told him of his past life, of a life that he hopefully would not have to live again. “It wasn’t. It was me. I took over and saved her. I ruined that timeline.”

“This is a reach.” Nathan shook his head and looked at the chalkboard. It all had plausibility, in theory, but it was a long way from being anything more than theory.

“No.” Christopher stood up and went over to one of his drawn transmutation circles. The one for creating a philosopher's stone. “It’s the same principle we used for the serum. In keeping the circle spinning by remastering our bodies to be the perfect specimen of all life, we reached balance. Unity. One is all, all is one. It’s why human transmutation and resurrection always failed, because the circle of life stops so that another circle begins. In bringing a soul back to a dead body you’re upsetting too many cycles. Creating monsters, abominations. I don’t believe in the soulmate thing, but why not? The soul is the most powerful piece of the equation, the energy that allows for creation. A spark we can’t create. An energy we don’t understand.“

“Oh God…” Nathan moaned.

“Yeah, it probably is.” Christopher said. “I think you should finally appreciate the importance of things that came before you, Nathan. We are not as old as this earth, and life is not new to this universe. We are not _that old_ in comparison. Someone, something, left a recipe for us to find in that Library. We pieced together a puzzle and got a reward, none of that was our original work. We forget that. We forget that someone _left_ that knowledge there for us to find.”

“You also survived the Artifact explosion  _ for a reason. _ ” Henry said. “And Jack stumbled into this town  _ for a reason _ . Time and time again, he got lost and came to Eureka. You’re drawn together.”

“I…” Nathan was at a loss for words. 

“ I’ve seen the data from the experiments but you’ve never told me exactly where the Artifact was discovered.” Christopher looked back at Nathan and quirked an eyebrow. “I’ve suspected it was from the Lighthouse.”

“Of Alexandria?” Henry asked, now his turn to be surprised.

“It was discovered in the area.” Nathan answered.

“So, it was there when we were made. And now you’re seeing what influence it has on us.” Christopher crossed his arms. “You delude yourself into thinking you have control over your fate, but this serum was always greater than us. We both ended up in that Library at that same time, for a reason.” 

“We never knew what it was Chris.” Nathan reminded him. “We were never allowed access. It doesn’t make sense that the Artifact was in the Lighthouse. It’s power, the levels of radiation it gave off, made it impossible for it to be utilized without levels of protection  _ back then _ . You and I would have died of radiation poisoning at the Library well before we figured out the formula.”

“We could have used to to nuke Caesar’s ass right back across the sea and save the library.” Chris smiled.

“I’m not getting into this. You know he wasn’t the first to burn it and that it was deteriorating long before he got there.” Nathan said and rubbed his temple. “We have the rest of our lives to debate this. My concern is that Jack won’t have much of a life because the Artifact might change the chemical reaction that I initiated.”

“Alchemist’s Curse: Human edition?” Christopher asked, now on the same wavelength,

“Exactly.”

“He’ll be fine.” Henry assured him. 

“You don’t know that.” Nathan said. “Has this scenario ever played out?”

“No. However none of us tampered with the timeline this time around.”

“Someone did. Someone put Jack on my trail utilizing a Tesla High School project his daughter was working on. A project that sent him to my door in 12 hours, and he had a lot of evidence compiled and confidence in accusing me of being a vampire.” Nathan said and looked at Christopher because he was the art teacher.

“Don’t look at me. I specialize in metals, not meddling. I’ve also enjoyed our casual sex life over the years, so no. I most certainly have nothing to gain by locking you into a soulmate.” Chris said. “And I don’t really like you that much.”

“It wasn’t me.” Henry said when they both looked at him. "I was 'hands off' this time around. I honestly was ready to accept the world ending if it was the path we were supposed to be on."

“Allison?” Christopher asked. Maybe that bad decision was rearing its ugly head now too.

“No.” Nathan said. “She was scared when Jack confronted her about me.”

“He does move fast.” Christopher said appreciatively. He was going to make things interesting, for sure.

“Kevin.” Henry said and Nathan’s eyes flickered with confusion. “He created this timeline. Your answer lies in the one person who wants to see you happy. He loves you and wanted to save you. He may have tried to help things along anyway, _every timeline_ he connected with Jack immediately upon meeting him.”

“How…”

“Probably the same way he knew Walter Perkin’s equation _ by heart  _ without the data.” Henry said and looked at the circled name on the board. “He had an equation memorized that he had never seen, and Jack had a connection to that kid instantly, a connection that told him the boy had the answers to saving us all. That always spoke of a higher power, not higher brain power.”

“And a kid who can unravel the secrets of the universe like that probably can figure out his Mom’s password and submit a proposal for research using her laptop in his house.” Christopher added, sarcastically.

“Shit.” Nathan said.

“So, we good?” Christopher asked. “Can you accept that the Artifact isn’t going to kill you both? That it transferred its power into both of you? Can I get back to work now?”

“It’s learned. The Artifact, has.” Henry offered. “That one person can’t hold the key. Carlson and Kevin were both devoured by that power. Splitting it up, so two people can make the connections when needed, allows it to exist inside of both of you without destroying you. Forever vessels.”

“Which brings up the point of why it decided it had to jump into a body at all.” Chris said with a heavy sigh. “The end of the world is nigh?”

“If…” Nathan considered that he was now a carrier of the artifact’s light. It pieced itself out. Some to Kevin, then to him and Jack. Dominos set up to fall in place. Him pushing to create Eureka. Kevin coming to Eureka. Jack stumbling into Eureka. Why take away Kim though? Why take away such a brilliant mind that complimented Henry’s? The Artifact connected with her too.

“Why don’t you let it go?” Henry suggested as he saw Nathan trying to figure it out and knowing what questions would be next. “Jack’s going to need you and we have enough to chew on for a while. We’re not solving any of this tonight.”

“If...the artifact dispersed its energy…” Nathan said and looked at the formula on the wall. The incomplete formula from the Artifact project. The theory he and Kim had that it was a supernova. The formula related to the r-process of a supernova where heavy metals were created from lighter ones. “Where’s Kim? It absorbed her soul, left her body. It absorbed all of Carlson and Carlson wanted to go. They're in there, but the artifact is inactive. I can’t house another soul. So, what if there was a split...like in Taggart’s experiment?”

“I sure as hell hope Henry’s soulmate didn’t get turned into a dog.” Christopher said and erased the timeline jargon on his chalkboard. 

“No...but a machine.” Nathan said. “Like Callister. I never did explain what made him special. However he was within reach of the Artifact network because Kevin worked with me in the lab. He died of a virus, which easily could have been an overload from the Artifact's energy and not Eureka's systems. What if it was a test? To see if a machine could hold a soul?”

“I appreciate this, I really do.” Henry shook his head. “But I can’t. Despite losing her time and time again, each loss is still a fresh wound. And it’s not healed yet.”

“I…”

“Nathan.” Henry said, recognizing when his former student chase a lead. “Go home. Enjoy a once in a lifetime love that’s eluded you until now. We have many tomorrows, and tonight I’d rather keep the comfort of a bottle of Scotch than debate.“

Christopher pressed the button to open up the hatch to the shop and Henry left. He could see Nathan struggling with it, guilt that this was working out for him but not Henry. There was so much guilt where Henry was concerned. Nathan went after him, never able to just leave things alone.

Henry walked outside as Nathan’s head emerged from the secret basement. He scrambled to get out of it before Henry could leave. Then he paused as Henry went to get into his truck, not sure how to talk about this without hurting him. “Henry?”

“I’m serious, Nathan. I am sick of talking about this. Please just let me find some comfort where I can.”

“One question.” Nathan said and Henry nodded at him.

“One.” Henry leaned on the door to his truck. 

“You’ve been very adamant over the years about immortality. You’ve made it clear it’s a curse. So...if Kim lived. Would you have turned her?” Nathan asked.

“No.” Henry said without pause.

Nathan nodded and Henry slammed his truck door. Before he could start the engine Nathan walked over to the rolled down window and looked at him. “Maybe her loss to death was unacceptable to the Artifact as well. Maybe her brilliance was absorbed into the artifact and transferred somewhere where a body would not limit her capacity to let her brilliance shine.”

“Nathan…” Henry warned.

“It makes no sense! Jason Anderson cheated her of her life and the Artifact chose to snuff it out before she could live the timeline she was cheated out of,  _ with you _ ? Kim, who understood the Artifact so well that we made unparalleled progress in less than a year with her the head of the project. It’s not exactly subtle, Henry, it’s a fucking supernova. It’s not going to kill her because it doesn’t want to be understood.”

“I made a way to travel back in time, with a fragment of the artifact, in order to save Kim. I got four years. Then I had to give it up, but it gave me four years. And she was so disappointed in me for risking the world for her. I’ve seen enough. Goodnight, Nathan.”

“You never were planning on leaving with us, were you? When this world dies?” Nathan asked as he started the engine. “On the Astraeus? All the work for NASA and rocket science and you were never going to go with us.”

“Still won't.” Henry said. “That’s the way the FTL drive works. You need someone on both ends and I’ve seen enough. I don’t want to see history repeat itself on another planet. I don't want to play God and pick who lives and who dies. So I pick how I die. Here. Where I should have died hundreds of years ago. Goodnight, Nathan.”

Nathan closed his eyes as the truck went in reverse as fast as possible and Henry took off. 

“For what it’s worth,.” Chris said from the doorway. “I think you’re right.”

Nathan looked over his shoulder at him. “Where the hell did she go, then?”

“No idea.” Chris leaded against his shop door and Nathan looked at him, concern and confusion on his face in the moonlight. "I think your theory that she was too valuable to lose has merit. Henry would have never turned her and Kim held a beacon of brilliance in her that even the Artifact took notice of.”

“Which is why she came here. Where Jack could expose Jason just as quickly as he exposed me.” Nathan said. The Artifact was gathering people.

“Jack is Truth.” Christopher looked up to the sky as something, probably Taggart, howled in the distance. “And the artifact has sped up your idea of collecting humanities finest for some reason. Our greatest failings have been our egos, the lies we tell ourselves, as we outwit nature and play God. Jack’s pretty good at calling everyone here out on that. He’s weeding out people for you. For  _ it _ .”

“For  _ wha _ t?”

“ _ Before _ what?” Chris said and took a deep breath. “Well, goodnight. For what it’s worth, I’m glad you found someone.”

  
  
  


* * *

  
  


Nathan arrived at the bunker and prepared himself for how bad Jack might be. S.A.R.A.H reported his vitals were fine, but Nathan worried his presence could trigger a flush of fever or hormones. He wasn’t sure if Zoe was home, he was going to do his best to keep her Dad from being  _ needy _ Jack in front of her eyes.

“ _ Welcome, Dr. Stark _ .” S.A.R.A.H. said as she opened the door.

“S.A.R.A.H., thank you.” Nathan smiled, she sounded very happy.

“Hey! You’re just in time for dessert.” Jack called from the kitchen.

Nathan braced himself, not knowing if Jack Carter was talking about himself or an entrée. 

“Thanks to Fargo’s obsession with you, S.A.R.A.H. has a bunch of your favorite meals in her database. How can you like Tiramisu when you hate Italian food? And do you hate Italian food because you have a grudge against the Romans?”

Nathan wasn’t expecting this. Jack was tastefully dressed, in jeans and a rather flattering blue dress shirt and excited to ask questions. “I don’t have a problem with Italian food, just what garlic does to my digestive system, which ironically, is similar to how I feel about the Romans. Tiramisu has liquor, rum, cocoa and heavy cream blended into a delicious dessert. It was also invented in brothels in Treviso who were quite clever in feeding their sexual spent clients a calorie rich dessert so they could keep spending money.”

Jack's eyes lit up. Oh the truth was fucking cool. “Are you serious!?”

“I am. Treviso has long been a very sexually liberated town and the dessert is filled with sugar and alcohol and called “pick me up” cake. I may have developed a taste for it there...among other things.” Nathan walked towards him as he smiled. This was disturbingly normal. That worried him.

“You kinky bastard! And you let me think I was the slutty one.” Jack laughed.

“It started as a drink that was egg yolk and sugar and literally translates to ‘ bang me,’.” Nathan said. “I guess S.A.R.A.H. left out the history of the dessert when she made it.”

“Does she have the recipe?” Jack asked. “The ‘bang me’ drink?”

“I take it from this conversation that Zoe is not home.” Nathan asked.

“She was. I told her my bite was because of some Halloween lawn ornament robot and that I had you help me with it, since you were the robot guy, and...you patched me up.”

Nathan raised his eyebrows.

“And that maybe I was in denial about my attraction to you so you were coming over for dinner because I didn’t want to say I already had dinner and get yelled at by my house in front of my kid.” Jack shrugged. “Then Zoe screamed and hugged me and said she was going to stay at Pilar’s all weekend to work on her school project. Proceeded to tell me to change into this outfit, told S.A.R.A.H. to make one of your favorite dinners and desserts, packed and called her friend for a ride. Then left and I’m pretty sure she also got Jo to cover for me this weekend because she just won a shit ton of money betting on us. ”

Nathan’s eyebrows raised even higher.

“That’s right. Unless the world ends and someone needs to call their Sheriff to fix it, I’m all yours this weekend.” Jack said and picked a cake up off the counter. “And we have kinky cake to start it off.”

“Wow. I was not expecting this.” Nathan admitted.

“What were you expecting?” Jack asked.

“I was expecting you to be curled up in the shower trying to stop your body from feeling like it was on fire.” Nathan walked over to him.

“Actually, my ass feels really...good. I mean, I was expecting _something_ , it’s been a while and you are _huge._ Do all your body fluids have special healing powers because I feel really…” Jack held up the cake. “Like I already had some cake. And I don’t think your cream tasted this good.”

“You’re horny again?” Nathan asked. 

“I never really stopped being horny.” Jack admitted. 

“This is not how this usually goes.”

“That’s funny coming from the guy who has this entire town thirsting for him.” Jack said and Nathan gave him a perplexed pout. “I usually don’t see you confused. It’s kinda weird.” 

“Sorry, I…” Nathan was keeping his distance to make sure he could think clearly. He tried to get a read on Jack but he was not giving off any odd hormonal smells or odors indicating his body was anything but normal.

“S.A.R.A.H. turned up the filtration rate on the inside air so she could pull more smells out of the room to help us out.” Jack informed him and Nathan nodded. “Forgot about that feature, huh?”

“I did.” Nathan walked over to him. “I do so much while I’m creating things and then I move on, that I forget what features I tinkered with.”

“How did your, uh, big reveal go?” Jack asked as Nathan walked up to him and ran his hand down his cheek and Jack felt his bite pulse as he thought Nathan might touch it. He moaned. 

Assured that things were just as he left them, now that he felt Jack react to his close proximity to the bite, he relaxed a little. “Well, it turns out that we’re so comfortable with each other because this is not our first timeline together.”

“Reincarnation?”

“Henry has been playing with the timeline to try and get Kim back.” Nathan explained and Jack just absorbed that without question. “And we...were _something_ in the first timeline. He thinks the Artifact is trying to correct our course back to what is right so the universe doesn’t tear apart and kill us all.”

“ _First_ timeline?” Jack asked.

“You came to Eureka, I worked with you on the Perkins case.” Nathan said. “Apparently we hit it off and when it came time to let Carlson heal you with the Artifact, I couldn’t let him. I wouldn’t take the chance with your life, so I bit you and it was too late. You died. Then I made another timeline to try and get you back.”

“Not the way I remember it. You didn’t like me when I got shot by your security dudes.” Jack recalled and then a light came on. “Oh….so it didn’t matter if the Artifact toasted me because you wanted to see what happened. Nice. ”

Nathan shrugged. “It was a ‘nothing to lose scenario’.”

“You cared for me so much…the first time around..” Jack said and thought about how long it was between his arrival and Carlson’s death. “In like  _ a month and a half _ ?”

“It’s been an hour and a half and being away from you has driven me crazy.” Nathan admitted.

“But that’s because of the bite. You said you bit me  _ after _ I got shot and was dying.”

“Are you really trying to figure out a crime from  _ another timeline _ ?” Nathan asked.

“Somewhere out there, I died and you…” Jack took a deep breath. “Oh, damn this time travel stuff always makes my head hurt. Than that’s when it on TV and not my own life."

“I came to Eureka too late. You worked with Ally and and fell for her. Then Kim died, Henry kept hitting the refresh button and and now is resigned to just accepting his interference is a sin and the universe dies because of him. We'll have to work on him.”

“Back to this _original timeline_ thing. A month?” Jack asked. “You fell for me  _ that fast _ ? And didn’t bite me?”

“Why is this about me? Or rather a version of me that doesn’t exist here and now?” Nathan asked, the things Jack focused on were always different than his own.

“Because it sounds like you already had an interest before that.” Jack said. “I know people, Nathan. I understand motive. I can't see you caring for me that much because I was not a great guy when I was here the first time. I locked my runaway daughter up in a jail cell. I kept trying to pull rank on local law enforcement. I was...open to sleeping with your wife who I didn’t know was your wife. _My wife_ was in bed, my bed, with some guy while I hunted down our delinquent daughter. I wrecked my car because of a dog, and apparently that dog was Taggart’s alter ego. Taggart shot me with an animal tranquilizer. Fargo was more of a henchman than lovable, button pushing Fargo we know. Warren King  _ was a dick _ . And uh….Kevin…”

“Kevin knew a formula he should have never had access to? Kevin, as brilliant as he is, should have at least had to think about an equation that would rip a hole in space time and break the universe?” Nathan smiled. Jack quickly got to the point, as always.

“Yeah.” Jack said. “And, uh, he probably worked with his Dad on that. Sounds like, maybe, there was a life we lived before. Longer than a month.”

“As much as I love science, talking time travel paradoxes is not quite what I was hoping to do tonight.” Nathan admitted.

“What were you hoping to do?” Jack smirked.

“Well, considering I can’t solve this tonight and really don’t see a need to...I was hoping to test the theory that we’re soulmates a few dozen more times  _ at least _ .”

“Oh. We’re soulmates? You left that out.” Jack grinned.

“That’s the working hypothesis right now.”

“I’d like to eat some sex cake off your abs if you want to use up some of this energy I have? We can talk more about this when I’m worn out from my body orgasming from across multiple dimensions?”

“You make it very hard to care about the world possibly ending.” Nathan said and allowed himself a kiss, and Jack pulled him down into something much more intense than he was going for. Yes, _very hard_ to care about anything outside of them.

“It is always ending, even before we knew it ended a few times.” Jack said and ran his hand over Nathan’s chest, toying with the button closest to the top. “So, why don’t we worry about  _ this _ beginning and deal with the ending when it comes up?”

Nathan kissed him again, lightly, savoring the taste on his tongue. Enjoying the feeling that this was right and he had been here before. “Let’s get in bed before I touch your bite again. I don’t want to take the chance Zoe comes home while you’re writhing around on the couch while I lick your neck.”

“Lick?” Jack said with a shiver of anticipation. “That sounds...like tease.”

“It is.” Nathan said and watched Jack’s eyes, arousal and power shining bright in them. He knew there was not going to be a problem with his body accepting the change, he was already halfway there. 

“OK, bed.” Jack said and pulled him towards the stairs. “But after, I want to hear about everything. I want to hear about all these places and people you’ve met and…what is your real name? Your original name?"

“I’m not that person anymore.” Nathan said. “Each time I change my name, I’ve been recrafted into a better version of me. It’s how I deal with leaving my past behind me and embrace the new role I crafted.”

“So..I’ll have to tease it out of you?”

“That man died, and he never had you. So my name is Nathan Stark, because I don't see any reason to leave this life behind, and I am taking you to bed, Jack Carter.”

"OK, I like the sound of that."


	7. Ouroborous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not going to even say it. Instead I'm going to say that I will end this fic on Chapter 8 because it's similar to the infinity symbol and part of our theme. 
> 
> I also may have accidently made this my NanoWriMo Fic because it went too long and I might as well.
> 
> And this is the season 3 episode "What about Bob", remastered for my needs.

_Trick or Treat_

Chapter 7

**Ouroborous**

* * *

_ One year later _

“Bob  _ Nobb _ ?”

The barely stifled giggle made Nathan close his eyes and try not to smile. All he could say was, “Don’t.” 

“That’s his  _ real  _ name?” Jack asked.

“Yes. And he’s been missing for two days.” Nathan said curtly, trying to keep things professional. He looked ahead at the closed elevator door, knowing if he turned to look at Jack he’d smile because that smile was infectious. It would only serve to encourage him.

“Missing _ his clothes _ , perchance?” Jack said and tugged on Nathan’s suit sleeve. “Did you get me a stripper?”

“No.” Nathan said and looked up at the ceiling. “I most definitely, do not want you looking at anyone but me naked, ever again, and I sure as hell didn’t want to have you working the day before the wedding.”

“You’re working.” Jack reminded him. “And I still went to work too. In fact, we’re currently standing here in an elevator at GD _working together_. Because you called me.”

“You know what I mean.” Nathan finally looked at him. This was not part of the plan.

“So that’s why it’s been _two days_ since this guy went missing?” Jack asked. “You were just hoping he would turn up so I wouldn’t have to get involved?”

“Exactly.” Nathan said as the elevator dinged and he walked into the hallway as soon as the door opened. 

“Really thrilled with your priorities this time around as GD Director.” Jack sighed, then followed him out of the elevator.

“You wanted me to care about people more, and I care.” Nathan replied as they walked down the hall. 

“You care about  _ me _ .” Jack said as everyone working on this floor found a reason to suddenly need something in the nearest lab or just outright ran back the way they came. “And this wedding. All the people in Eureka are absolutely fed up with you right now.”

“Incentive to make sure everything is perfect.” Nathan chirped.

“How is the wedding planning going, by the way?” Jack asked, knowing full well this was not part of Nathan's carefully constructed plan. 

“Do you really want to know?” 

“Not really.”

“FIne. Let’s find Dr. Nobb so it’s one less thing to get in the way of our perfect day.” Nathan said and opened the door to the Lab 27 control room.

“Right. I’d hate to have a Nobb get between us.” Jack laughed. Bob _Nobb_? He was supposed to accept that as a real name. All these geniuses and they couldn't come up with something better? 

“Focus, Sheriff.” Nathan snapped as they entered the control room. “Bob Nobb is missing. He was a researcher in Lab 27. He’s been missing two days.”

“Did you check his pants? Am I supposed to?” Jack asked as they walked into some typical room at GD that had boring grey walls, tons of monitors, and one scared looking scientist who didn’t want God himself coming down to visit him ever. Or maybe this was Bob Nobb? This dude was not his type at all. Hell he looked like he was old enough to be dating his daughter. ”Is Bob Nobb underage?

“Nobb lives in the lab.” Nathan said and rolled his eyes. "This is Dr. Bowers."

“Your kinda guy, huh?” Jack asked and Nathan flickered an annoyed look at him. Wasn’t sure if that was for implying he was into someone else or because he wasn’t taking this seriously. “Did you check under his cot?”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple.” Nathan said as he watched Jack look around the room, kinda disengaged. Annoyed with his lack of urgency, he decided to hit the button that opened up the observation panels on the floor, knowing full well it would probably make Jack puke.

“It never is.” Jack mumbled as he looked around and then his eye caught movement below. He jumped into Nathan attempting to push him to safety, but the man didn’t move. As the floor panels moved, he realized they were revealing a glass floor and when he looked down, he realized it was way _ way  _ down. His fear of heights immediately kicked in when he realized the lab was far below them. He slammed his eyes shut and growled as he slapped his chest. “Nathan! You know I hate heights.”

“I know.” Nathan chirped smugly and closed the panels. “And I hate your nonchalant approach to our wedding. So can you please start Sheriffing so this does not delay  _ our special day _ or  _ our incredible honeymoon _ ?”

Jack had to concentrate on his breathing to get his heart rate under control and the bile forced back down his throat. Nathan was kind enough to put a hand on the small of his back to help ground him. That was still a dick move. He waited until he heard the whoosh of the panels close to open his eyes and say, “What about Bob? What can you tell me about Bob?”

Nathan gave Jack an apologetic smirk then pointed at the other person in the room that Jack was ignoring. “Dr. Bowers?”

“Lab 27 has been in operation for 11 years. I’ve been director for two, you can call me Derek.” Derek said and offered his hand for a shake. The Sheriff looked like he wanted to throw up on it, but took it and gave him a firm shake before walking off his nausea.

“And how long has Nobb been involved?” Jack walked around the control desk and glared at Nathan who looked at him with smug satisfaction. Some fiancé he was. Some soulmate. Some Asshole. Some  _ thing _ had to be important about this project to ask for an investigation. 

“Since the beginning, of course.” Derek answered.

“So what is this place?” Jack asked as he pointed to the floor. 

“Lab 27. A sealed biosphere.” Nathan answered and Jack at least recognized that as being important for their future Astraeus plans. “A self-sustaining ecosystem designed to research and support our missions on Mars.”

Jack lifted an eyebrow as Nathan assumed his authoritative director's stance. “You mean _potential_ Mars missions.”

Derek looked at him and laughed and realized he was being serious. “Um...yeah?”

Jack got a little quirk of a smile from his fiancé for that. Playing dumb about space and exploration was essential to the plans to actually go to space. “So how long has Bob been in there for?”

“Eleven years.” Derek answered.

“ _ Eleven years _ !” Jack exclaimed

“Well him and nine other researchers.” Derek added.

“So he’s been down there for  _ 11 years  _ with nine other people and nobody has come in or out in all this time?” Jack asked and looked at Nathan with a smile. Ok, a simple little ‘problem’ to keep him busy today, in a sealed lab, so he didn’t get into something worse. Hardly his best work, but Nathan was under a lot of stress right now. Sure. He’d play along.

“No. No one.”

“This is going to be a walk in the park.” Jack said to Nathan. “A piece of cake.”

Nathan smiled at him. “It better be because I expect to be walking _down the aisle_ with you tomorrow at 4:30 and _eating cake_ at 5.”

“Riiiight.” Jack said and Nathan fidgeted with his watch. The man was just clinging to hope that Eureka wouldn't be Eureka and rob them of that elusive 'day off'. 

“We will.” Nathan said definitively.

“You don’t know how long my vows will take.” Jack said and stuck out his tongue at him.

“I’m waiting for that information so I can plan accordingly.” Nathan replied

“Haven’t written them yet.” Jack said. “Think I’ll improvise.”

“Then you should get to work figuring out where Dr. Nobb went.” Nathan said. “Lab 27 is a 12,000 acre, closed ecological system located a ½ mile below us. Inside is a 850-square-meter lake, a savannah grassland, a rainforest where the human habitat is located. A lot of ground to cover and you do like to run around a lot.”

“Ok, I’ll go take a look inside.” Jack said and looked at the floor. “Hopefully there is an elevator?”

“You can’t go inside, Sheriff.” Derek said. “Entering is a total violation of protocol.”

Jack looked at Nathan who knew exactly what he was going to say. “Sorry, but I have to find out if someone knows anything about Bob Nobb’s disappearance and I can’t do that without talking to them.”

“We have cameras and monitors.” Derek protested. “You can interview whoever you want from right here.”

“Not the same.” Jack said and looked at Nathan. He was trying to get a read on him, trying to tell if this was a set up to walk in to a bachelor party in Jurassic Park or if this was genuinely a missing persons case. “I have to do it face to face.”

Nathan was anticipating that. “You’ll have to be thoroughly decontaminated. It’s a closed environment down there.”

Jack was surprised he agreed to that. Either the project was super important or he genuinely was getting locked in somewhere he couldn’t get into trouble in.

“But I’m going with you.” Nathan said. 

“Why?” Jack replied, shocked.

“What?” Derek asked.

“You’ll be isolated down there away from all communication devices that will give you access to the information you need to solve this. I will help you.” Nathan said and walked across the room to the door to the access elevator.

“It’s a missing person case.” Jack said. “I was a  _ U.S. Marshall _ . Finding people was what I did for a living.”

“Not in Lab 27.”

“In  _ America _ .” Jack reminded him. “Which is bigger than Lab 27. _Way_ bigger.”

Nathan looked at him as he fought the urge to get out his phone and look up the data to add statistics to his statement. “I’m going with you if you insist on going down there.”

“Fine.” Jack said. “You’re getting clingy for a guy who refuses to sleep in the same house as me for a week leading up to our wedding.”

“ _ This _ , has nothing to do with  _ that _ .” Nathan said. “It has everything to do with the lab having very little exploration in the last 11 years and you being an intrepid explorer who will undoubtedly follow a lead somewhere in the uncharted territory.”

“It’s only…” Jack waved at the floor. “12,000 acres. It’s not actually on Mars, is it?”

“I’m going with you.” Nathan repeated. “So come into the antechamber and get decontaminated.”

“Oh no…” Jack said. “You didn’t say I was going to have to take one of _ those _ showers.”

“What part of sealed biosphere did you not get?” Nathan asked and used his code to access the antechamber.

“Is this an elaborate wedding shower?” Jack asked, not wanting to get naked and hosed down with goo. 

“No.” Nathan looked over his shoulder as the door opened. “You missed that because you were having a heart to heart with an attack drone in the freezer of Café Diem while I was left to deal with our guests by myself.”

“Well, Groomzilla, it was only fitting that they offer tribute to the angry God by themselves without me asking why we need a flying toaster to walk a dog we don’t have.” Jack huffed and shook off the chill that came over him as he thought about that freezer and the upcoming decontamination shower.

“Let’s go.” Nathan said and ushered Jack in the room and closed the door. “Get naked.”

“Oh.” Jack said with a grin. “It’s _ that _ kind of bachelor party. Do I at least get a little music to dance to or are you going to sing?” 

“Unfortunately no.” Nathan said as he undid his tie and shut off any visuals or audio within the chamber so Derek didn’t hear them, or see Jack. “This is genuinely just work, Jack.”

“We just _happen_ to be taking off our clothes before we go into a super secure lab that hasn’t been cracked open in 11 years. Together?” Jack said and took off his belt and placed it in a container on the wall. “Sure you don’t want a little show?”

Nathan shook his head. “Not even going to look at you.” 

“Really?” Jack said as he took off his uniform. “Not even a peek?”

“No.”

“I’ve been working out.”

“Good, you’ll need the stamina. Tiramisu is not going to be enough to keep you going all through next week.” Nathan said and took off his suit and hung it up, knowing without looking that Jack was just balling up his uniform and throwing it in the box. That man…”The chamber uses high intensity light to remove any traces of bacteria from your skin so you don’t contaminate the lab.”

“Changing the subject, Dr. Stark?” Jack smirked as he stripped down and turned around and looked over at his soon-to-be-husband and watched him take off the rest of his clothes and carefully hang them up. “You’re so fucking gorgeous, I’d like to remove everything from your skin with my tongue.”

“Focus on the missing researcher,  _ Sheriff  _ Carter.”

“I’m thinking about Nobb.” Jack said and saw the full body sigh that indicated Nathan was questioning why he wanted to marry such an immature idiot.

“Stand in the center.” Nathan instructed and tapped in a code and timer on the computer on the wall. The drawers with clothes were withdrawn and tracksuits emerged on the other wall. “Close your eyes, the flash will still bother your eyes if you're directly exposed. Once we’re bacteria free, change into the suit hanging on your right.”

“Track suits?” Jack said and walked over to them. “Seriously?”

“Don’t touch. The light is on a timer. Get over here.  _ Now _ .”

“Back to back?” Jack said and smirked. “Or maybe, I could do a little dance...”

“Behave.” Nathan growled. “And get over here, shut your eyes before you’re temporarily blinded for our wedding day.”

Jack finally gave in, hearing the agitation in Nathans’s voice and the touch of concern. He walked over, turned his back to his naked fiancé and shut his eyes. He focused on the rhythm of his soulmate's heartbeat, feeling that Nathan was on overload. “Anything I can help with? With the wedding.”

“Just get there on time.”

“So this isn’t a secret bachelor party?”

“No.” Nathan said and saw the pulsating light through his eyelids and sighed when it was over. No screaming, Jack did as asked. He opened his eyes and went over to his tracksuit. “This is a real Eureka problem and we agreed that there would be no bachelor party.”

“Well  _ we _ did, but my sister seems to think  _ she’s _ entitled to one.”

“Your sister also thinks the cat is your grandmother.” 

“Well, apparently your ex-boyfriend is kinda into that.”

“That’s not the pussy he’s interested in.”

“Can we not talk about my sister like that?” Jack asked, appalled.

“Can you sister not talk to  _ me _ like that?” Nathan countered. 

“Fair.” Jack said. It did sound like a direct Lexi quote. “So Bob Nobb. He’s just a researcher, not a stripper?”

“He works with plants.” Nathan informed him. "He does tend to be half naked a lot, but his occupation is scientist."

“And why do we have a magic world down there?” Jack asked. "Why do we have Lab 27 for the _Mars Mission_?"

“Terraforma. So we can create an Earth-like environment on a planet we find suitable for life if we can’t find another Earth. Or, more likely, if we have to drop your sister and my ex off on a planet in a neighboring solar system and leave them there.”

“You really think he’s going to go all the way. Turn her?” Jack asked. He had been trying to tune out Lexi when she talked about how much she appreciated Dactlyos's love of the Earth and elements and blah blah. She kept making him pot brownies and he suspected it was the only reason the guy remained calm enough to not bite her. 

“I think he’s been bitter and miserable since the dark ages and finally has someone who cares about his psuedoscience like him.” Nathan said. 

“I think she likes his Knob.” Jack said. “And his teeth. I think that’s as far as her magic appreciation goes.”

“So she tells me.” Nathan sighed. Honesty apparently ran in the Carter lines, along with other things. 

“So, what was that thing I was supposed to hate you for? Eternity  _ without _ my family?”

Nathan finally looked over at him and frowned. “Yeah.” 

“If you didn’t _have_ to have a wedding, this would have never happened.” Jack said and walked over and giggled at Nathan 'sophistication’ Stark wearing some generic Lab 27 track suit. Of course he looked great in it, but it was so vastly different than what he came in here wearing. He started playing with his zipper on his fiancé's jacket.

“Well, it’s my last wedding so I wanted it to be special.” Nathan reminded him. 

“Special is the new word for a ‘six month long nightmare’?” Jack asked. “Complete with escort to Lab Jurassic Park the day before we get married?”

“I’m not taking chances you’ll be late.” Nathan said and slapped his hand away from zipping and unzipping his suit.

“Because, God forbid, we have to reschedule our wedding when we have all the time in the world.”

“The world’s days are numbered.” Nathan reminded him and opened the door to the elevator that went down to the lab. They got in and he pushed the ‘down’ button. “And there is no way this wedding is getting postponed.”

“Right.” Jack had to grab onto him as the elevator dropped fast. He hated heights, but Nathan made them so much more tolerable. “That’s why we have to go to the prehistoric world and investigate a missing persons report?”

“We’ll sniff him out and return him to his camp and get back before lunch.”

“Sniff _Nobb_.” Jack said with a giggle.

“Stop.” Nathan said as he put in a new command string for the computer and then opened the door. “I’ll keep our conversation muted until we engage with a researcher, but they will still be able to see us on the monitors.”

“A warning to me to be well behaved?” Jack said with a snort of amusement.

“Yes." Nathan said and stepped out of the elevator. "Welcome to Lab 27.”

“Looks like Vancouver.” Jack said and frowned as he stepped outside.

“It’s Earth, without any human or large predator interference.” Nathan said. "Artificially recreated so we can turn back time to find out what it was before humans started impacting it."

“Without any interference except for the handful of people in tracksuits living down here. I can smell them. They smell  _ natura _ _l_ alright.” Jack sighed and Nathan started walking away. “I like this tracksuit. Maybe I can wear it instead of a tux.”

“I will kill you. Right now. Stake you with a tree limb and leave you down here while the world dies.” Nathan said as he turned to look at Jack and waited for him to stop screwing around.

Jack started playing with his zipper and got his hand slapped. “You know, I’d be less annoying if you stroked me as much as you stroked Grandma Lil. I want to sit in your lap too. Purr a little.”

“Not until after we’re married.” Nathan said. “Stop trying to make me mad.”

“Me-ow.” Jack said and he could feel Nathan’s blood start to boil. “Speaking of animals, it's been a while since you fucked me on all fours and bit me…”

“I’m going to bite your tongue off soon.”

“Can’t say my vows without it. Have to postpone the wedding…” Jack said and rubbed up against Nathan as they walked towards the human settlement, the prehistoric underworld. “You might want to put my tongue to use...some other way?”

“With as horny as you are right now?”

“I call it neglected.” Jack corrected him and looked around at...lots of plants. 

“And I have very vivid memories of what it feels like when you can’t control your excitement.” Nathan reminded him.

“Oh come one, that was a year ago!” Jack lamented. He was never going to live that down! And 'never' held a lot more weight when you were immortal. “I didn’t have control of my teeth!”

“I remember.” Nathan said and huffed. “I remember them coming out and stabbing me _in the dick_.”

“It’s not my fault you’re huge and a genuine mouthful.” Jack explained. “I didn't know how to retract them and you didn’t include the ability to unhinge my jaw with the snake parts that gave us those teeth. Talk about lack of foresight.”

“Talk about lack of foreskin." Nathan growled. "Two thousand years without a penis injury until I met you. Thankfully that healed." 

“I got really turned on.” Jack said. “Which is usually rare with a blowjob. That tends to be all about the receiver. But you…”

“Got stabbed in the dick. Then got teeth raked down my shaft as you tried to ‘carefully’ remove me from your mouth. Then you somehow managed to conjure up the wrong salvia to ease my pain.”

“I was new to this!” Jack reminded him. “And there isn’t an instruction manual because…”

“Because you don’t listen.”

“Your voice turns me on too much!”

“And when I was screaming in agony because you were fileting my dick? You listened then.”

“I did. I learned there is a panic mode saliva. And it’s salty. And that it really hurts.” Jack tried not to smile, but in hindsight that fiasco was kinda funny.

“Right.” Nathan said. “So, under the circumstances, forgive me if I plan on waiting for your delightful tongue until after our wedding. After our wedding night and well into the honeymoon.”

“I still remain impressed that you had so much control of your tongue glands that you could produce numbing saliva while hurting that bad.” Jack passed on the compliment.

“And I was impressed that despite having skin torn on my no longer aroused dick, you saw it as an opportunity to try and give me a handjob.”

“It was an apology hand job with soothing spit. Rimjob spit.”

“And yet, somehow, I looked at you through tears and decided that I wanted to marry you.” Nathan shook his head. 

“And I’m the kinky one.” Jack grinned and took his hand and kissed it. “Was that before or after I asked if werewolves had the same saliva production and if Taggart could lick himself?”

“Unfortunately after.”

“I can’t wait for you to tell this story at the reception.” Jack laughed.

“Yeah, I think we’ll keep to the stories about public incidents.”

“We could have a public incident right now.” Jack said and then realized what was actually going on here. He was still kinda excited by the story, because it was their playful banter, but Nathan was calm and cool. “You’re using that memory to keep yourself from getting turned on right now aren’t you?”

“Yes.” Nathan said. “The one good thing about having my cock gnawed on is that I can use it to remind myself of the one time I was definitely not turned on by you.”

“Only one time?” Jack said, kinda flattered. “And does that mean you’re turned on by me in _ this _ suit?”

“Can we please find Nobb and get this over with?”

“You’re really stressed.” Jack said and Nathan grumpily trudged through the underbrush of the forest.

“I want our wedding to be perfect. You keep saying we have all the time in the world, but we don’t. We don’t have a lot of time with  _ your _ world, your lifetime. The life you lived and the people and places in it. That goes away so fast and it never returns, so I want to make sure it’s all perfect. There will be no ‘I Do over’.” Nathan said.

“I get it.” Jack said. “But don’t need all this. I just need you.”

“I want these memories. I want the pictures. I want our day frozen in time, reminding us of the day  _ we _ chose to be with each other for the rest of our lives. We chose marriage, not the artifact. This is our choice and I want to celebrate that with everyone we know.”

“Before they’re gone.” Jack said and Nathan nodded. “I can enjoy a wedding without it being this huge though.”

“You never know what you missed out on until you feel  _ the regret _ . Until you look back at the past and say you wish you would have done something when you had the chance. So I will make sure I leave out nothing.” Nathan said. "For both our sakes."

“Ok, on that note, we should solve the crime and get you back to making everyone miserable.” Jack said and walked past Nathan, slapping him on the ass. “Sporty Spice.”

Nathan smiled at him as he bounded up the path, light as ever on his feet despite having the worst eating and exercise habits. The man had an incredibly athletic body and energy to match. He jogged to catch up. “Take a deep breath, what do you smell?”

Jack got to the top of the trail and humored him, thinking it was some kind of skill assessment. He still was getting used to the heightened senses thing and tended to ignore them. Nathan was big on time management, big on using his perfect body to its full advantage. He’d use his senses to blitz through most of his tasks and not feel like it was cheating. Jack took a breath and tried to pinpoint what he was smelling. Certainly not a dead body. “Um….trees. Sap. Pollen. A lake? It smells so real.”

“It is real. Plants, terrain and animals are, the environment is controlled. The breeze, the sun, the sunrise and sunset, they’re created in a control room to maintain the balance in the system and make the lab seem more real to the residents.” Nathan explained.

Jack took another deep breath. “Make it feel  _ like home _ ?”

“We may not be able to save the Earth but we can recreate it.” Nathan said. “I don’t intend to make us live forever on a spaceship. We will have a new home.”

“It smells so clean.” Jack said. “When I focus on the water, it’s very pure. I can’t smell the industrial flavors in the water, nothing left over from the mining days or the military. No chlorine or fluoride. It’s untouched.”

“That’s because it is. We have to create plants that have not been modified by our environment on the surface so we don’t just transplant our problems into a new world. Everything we take with us from Earth is going to be classified as a foreign species and biological warfare on another planet. We have to minimize that assault on a new ecosystem.”

“That’s cool.” Jack said and looked up as it started to rain. He stuck out his tongue to taste it, thinking it would be pure spring water. Then he made a face. “Is that….”

“Recycled urine.” Nathan said and nodded. 

“Awesome.” Jack said and tried to spit it out. In doing so he picked up the scent of someone new. “The welcome party has arrived.”

“Well, then start behaving. The audio is coming back on.” Nathan looked up at the sky. “Remember, cameras are everywhere.”

Jack was enjoying this but he could feel how anxious Nathan was. He wanted to get back to what he was doing, not take a walk in the park. “I could have taken care of this myself. It would have given you time to prepare wedding stuff.”

“It's ok, I have it handled."

Jack shrugged, he was trying to help by freeing up Nathan to fuss over wedding stuff, but this project was important on a level that he didn’t realize. Nathan wouldn’t be able to focus on the wedding or honeymoon unless he knew things were right in Lab 27. A Lot had to be riding on this. He waited for the arrival of whoever had come from camp to greet them. He assumed Derek had given his people the heads up that the Director and Sheriff were coming for a surprise visit. He, however, wasn't expecting a teenage girl to be the welcoming committe. 

“Hi! I’m Teri.” The teenager waved and smiled at them. “I’m here to bring you back to camp.”

“Hi!” Jack said, “I’m..”

“Sheriff Carter and this is Dr. Stark.” She said. “We know. Derek let us know you were coming. He said this is about Bob’s disappearance?”

“Yeah.” Jack said and wondered why they sent the kid to get them. Well, beyond the unassuming and neutralizing charm of an innocent kid bringing you into the stowaway cabin, he wondered what they were cleaning up back at camp. 

“I hear you’re getting married tomorrow.” She said and looked back and forth between the two of them. Derek wasn’t kidding when he said they were both gorgeous. 

“We are.” Nathan smiled. “Derek read you in on quite a bit.”

“Well, just because we’re isolated doesn’t mean we want to be cut off from the outside world.” She said. “And he runs this project so letting everyone know the updates is pretty important. The others are a little freaked out. They think that you coming down here means the experiment is over.”

“Would that be a bad thing?” Jack asked.

“If people wanted to leave, maybe. However this is really an amazing experience for people like my parents.” Teri explained.

“I have no intentions of shutting down this project.” Nathan informed her. “It’s too important.”

“Why don’t we figure out what happened to Bob before we make that decision, Dr. Stark.” Jack reminded him.

“It was never in question, this project remains a 'go' unless the environment has become contaminated to prevent it from continuing.” Nathan informed them both. 

“What about Bob?” Jack asked.

“I’ll find another expert in sustainable agriculture.” Nathan replied.

“Hey, Lexi’s really into...basement based agriculture.” Jack said. 

Nathan leaned in and whispered. “Do not talk about your sister’s penchant for pot in front of the kid.”

“Right.” Jack said and smiled at Teri. “So, what about Bob? Anything you can tell us about him?”

“He’s missing.” Teri said.

Jack frowned as she got sad and started leading them down the path towards what he hoped was the settlement. 

“Now look what you did.” Nathan smirked and put his arm around him and said, “Just, find Bob and let's get out of here.”

Jack settled into the comfort of having Nathan’s arm around him, right up until the scream. They both realized Teri had vanished around a bend on the trail at the same time but Jack was the first to break into a sprint to chase her down. She was being dragged away, by something. Something not human! He honed in on her scent, and kept getting whiffs of something else, unable to determine what the hell it was. He crashed through the trees, jumped logs and dodged some plants that looked like the thing from Little Shop of Horrors, then damned near tripped over Teri when he found her laying on the ground. “Hey! You OK? Nathan! Over here! She’s been…. slimed?”

Nathan wasn’t far behind, he just took a more direct route. As always. He bent down as soon as he found them and looked at the quizzical look on Jack’s face. Jack was sniffing the slime, the look was not of shock of finding it but of what he was finding it out to be. “What?”

“This slime...I mean saliva.” Jack said handheld out his hand for Nathan to smell it. “It’s um...familiar.”

Nathan sniffed it and blinked. What the fuck? That was definitely the same chemical makeup as the numbing saliva, it was just thicker. More like dog drool.

“So, tell me again, how it’s just humans down here?” Jack said and whipped the saliva off his hand. They heard more crashing through the woods and the rest of the campers arrived. Jack assumed Teri’s parents were the ones immediately by her side and he backed away so they could have access to their daughter. He exchanged looks with Nathan: that saliva was of the topical anesthesia variety and there was a lot of it. 

“Yes.” Nathan said. “ _Just humans_. There are no predators, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“No crazy Taggart level animal experiments?” Jack asked and the researchers looked at them terrified that they were here to take away their jobs, not that they were in danger of being eaten by a dinosaur. 

“No.” Nathan said and looked at the group in front of them. “Unless one of you wants to confess to creating something that would jeopardize your mission?” 

“Dr. Stark,” Teri’s father looked up at him and said, “I speak for all of us when we say none of us would jeopardize the experiment. Or anyone’s life.”

“Sheriff Carter,” Teri’s mother brushed slime off her daughter’s face. “We’re not amateurs. We take our research very seriously. This is a project we all believe in. We would never compromise the results by introducing unapproved animals.”

“It went that way.” Teri said and pointed at a trail through the woods with tree branches covered in slime. 

“Ok, I’ll go look for Slimer and you take your people back to the village.” Jack said and Nathan gave him a glare that said this was _ not _ what he was implying it was. “Maybe check the kid over and make sure she’s not infected with  _ something _ .”

“Sure.” Nathan said and Jack got up to walk off his suspicions because he was always so quick to follow the logical path to motive and suspect. Unfortunately, as Director of GD, he was usually the one who logically was the first suspect with motive. He didn’t fault him for that, he was glad their relationship didn’t cloud his judgment, but it was still annoying.

Jack took a walk through the woods, following the slime and taking deep breaths of air to get a feel for the project he was investigating. This was the New Earth, or at least the vision of Earth that would survive the end of the world. Which, according to the genius vampires who planned for things like that, could happen in a hundred or more years. To them, it was tomorrow, to him it was still hardly a reason for panic. But, time and place was right to prepare and get ready to go to space and they were all prepping like crazy to blast off on a spaceship named for some Greek God of wind. 

He got it. Sort of. He understood the concepts but fell short of believing in the projects on the levels that they did. It had been a pretty incredible year with Nathan, and he most definitely never wanted it to end, but so much of Nathan’s work was dedicated to making sure it never did end. For humanity. Or Vampireity. Or both. 

Projects that used to be the bane of his existence, along with the man who approved them, were suddenly shown to have more purpose than just ‘pushing boundaries of science’. Nathan had a mind that so easily multitasked, that he was able to utilize everything GD had to offer. He just was concerned that this panic about the world ending, and Nathan’s need for more science before it happened, was what was pushing everyone to end it faster.

And there was always the Artifact who lurked in the dark basement somewhere, still pretty cryptic and silent.

Nathan got his job as Director back incredibly fast after they started dating, and Jack thought it was because he wanted to go back to working together. Nope. Nathan and Christopher were insistent that the Artifact was cracking the whip and telling them to get moving on their spaceship. The Noah’s Ark of science and smart people. The best humans could offer, all packed up and zipping of the planet before it died.

That meant a lot of new people in Eureka, a lot of new projects and a very busy year for them both. From a new understanding of his modified human body, to the guy who really made that body feel good, to the fact that that man wanted to put a ring on his finger and call him his husband….things moved fast. They moved fast but they felt so right. Unfortunately a lot of stuff went wrong in the wake of it all and Jack felt like maybe his fiancé was pushing everyone way too hard.

But that was Nathan, and that had been Nathan from day one. 

Jack stopped as he found where the slime led and bent down to look at some hole in the ground that definitely was not getting written off as ‘natural occurrence’. He reached in, seeing something white and slimy, and hoped it was not teeth. He was worried that maybe some vampire had been sealed off down here to see if it survived the new environment too, it just went wrong somehow. Because this was still Eureka.

* * *

“Find anything?” Nathan asked as he tried to make due with the lab equipment the Lab 27 researchers had to analyze the salvia.

“That thing climbed into a hole.” Jack sat down on the desk next to him. 

“What kind of a hole?” Nathan asked. 

“A slippery hole.” Jack said and Nathan looked at him annoyed. “I’m being serious and not making references about any other personal experiences. Got a shoe for you. Looks like it was probably Bob’s. Found his bloody shirt nearby too. Anything on the analysis that tells us what this is?”

“This equipment is 11 years old. Nothing came in or out of here, it’s what they started with. It’s going to take time.” Nathan sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I’m initiating evacuation and shutdown scenarios right now.”

“Just like that?” Jack asked.

“This project has been compromised somehow and the longer I allow it to continue, the further along we get with contaminated data.” Nathan said. 

“OK.” Jack said. “Sorry.”

“It’s provided valuable advancements, it’s probably time to end it.” Nathan smacked a few keys. “Especially since these computers are so _fucking_ slow.”

“I didn’t mean anything back there, I wasn’t implying..” Jack wondered what he was implying. "It just seemed like it was all a little too familiar. The slime, that is."

“I know. You’re just doing your job.” Nathan said. “I’m frustrated because this was a very important project and somehow we allowed a contagion into a closed system. That’s unacceptable.”

“So we’re packing up?” Jack asked, it wasn't often they closed a case this fast. But Nathan had places to be.

“Well, it’s not that simple.” Nathan explained. “After ten years the residents' immune systems have changed. We can be sterilized to come in, but we can’t sterilize the world for them to come out. It’s going to take a transition facility, which will take time.”

“And, um, what about us?” Jack asked knowing that Nathan wasn’t the type to smack buttons to make things move faster, yet here he was doing it.

“Too important of a project to just walk away from.” Nathan sighed. Being on time for their wedding was looking like it might be a challenge. “We need answers and we can’t leave the residents down here to possibly destroy evidence.”

“People _do_ react poorly to you shutting down their projects.” Jack said. “So, why don’t you do the science thing and I’ll do the Sheriff thing and we keep the redaction/shutdown thing between us for now.”

“Love to, but everything is recorded down here. Monitors, cameras, everywhere.” Nathan looked up at him and smiled. "All access TV up in the control room."

“So, Derek probably already told his people?” Jack said and Nathan nodded. He didn’t blame the guy, he would give Jo a heads-up if someone was coming to shut them down. “Well, scientist, get me some answers as to what exactly I’m supposed to be hunting.”

“I can tell you that nobody liked Bob Nobb.” Nathan said. “Womanizer. Liked making agricultural euphemisms. Cared more about his garden than people. Started spending a little too much time with Teri Wallace than anyone appreciated. Kept a corkboard of pictures of him shirtless with everyone female in camp, over in the common room. Real winner.”

“Well, I have a teenage daughter so I can appreciate wanting to see Bob Knob fall down a slippery hole.”

“Why risk it though?” Nathan asked and tried to lean back in the chair but it was not that nice of a chair. He shifted around uncomfortably and Jack took notice and started to rub his shoulders. He wanted to tell him that they were working, and that was not appropriate, but it felt _so_ good. Oh shit he was stressed. 

Jack started rubbing the knots of stress out of his shoulders and neck. Nathan really felt like the whole world was on his shoulders and he hoped he’d eventually let him shoulder a little of the burden. “For your kid, you’d risk everything.”

“But all it would take would be a call upstairs to get Bob removed. He clearly has a reputation that was well earned. I’m not going to overlook a sexual predator, no matter what he brings to the team.” Nathan said. “They had to see him as an integral component of the project, I can’t see anyone risking 11 years of work for Nobb.” 

“I don’t want to jump to judgment, but none of these people seem like the type to go the route of premeditated murder via prehistoric beast. That’s, years of research...right?” Jack said. “Those people were more afraid of  _ you _ than whatever attacked Teri. They think they can handle whatever the slime monster was, but not  _ you _ .” 

“They’re probably all aware I’m going to be extremely intolerant of someone ruining my wedding tomorrow.”

“Although I am certain that even the people of Gilligan's Island heard about your wedding planning tantrums, I’m pretty sure they just fear you, Director Stark, not Groomzilla.”

Nathan heard the computer make a noise and leaned forward to see what it was spitting out as a report on the biologicals they found on Teri. He pulled up the data and Jack kept rubbing his shoulders. “Great. This fucking thing is broken.”

“That looks like science stuff not an angry computer window.” Jack said. 

“It is. It says the substance on Bob’s shoe is human,  _ kind of _ .”

“ _ Kind of? _ ” Jack asked and stopped rubbing his shoulders. He bent down and put his head next to Nathan’s and whispered in his ear. “We’re technically ‘human, kind of’.”

“Yeah.” Nathan said and took a deep breath. “If these results are correct….we’re looking at Atavism.”

“Mmm.” Jack said and watched Nathan drum his fingers on the desk. He waited for him to continue because Nathan didn’t make him wait for an explanation anymore.

“Evolution in reverse.” Nathan said and turned his head so he could look Jack in the eye. “Ninety percent of our DNA is believed to be dormant, left over from when we all shared ancestors. Atavism is the reappearance of traces that have disappeared.”

Jack didn’t need examples of using that extra DNA. Two of them were right here. “So, is this an infection?”

“Impossible, it's not a natural part of evolution and they don't have the resources to create a virus down here. It was a closed system until we arrived and this happened at least two days ago.” Nathan said. “I’ll wait on the labs upstairs to verify this. I think we should find Bob Nobb, or whatever ate him, to see if we can verify this ourselves.”

“Right.” Jack said and saw the worry in Nathan’s eyes. Was someone on to them? Was this someone’s way of telling them they knew what was going on in Eureka? If so, who the hell could go to these lengths to expose them? Or blackmail them? “Any way _something_ could be introduced down here?”

“It’s a closed environment.” Nathan repeated. But he knew he was asking if it was the Artifact. He couldn't answer that and it was always a possibility. 

“This doesn’t  _ just happen _ .” Jack said. Except it did. Two thousand years ago, two dudes went to a library and had the light of Alexandria decide it wanted them to be immortal so it could hitchhike off Earth when it got destroyed. Was it looking at options?

“We need to gather more evidence while we wait on the results to be verified.” Nathan said. “Do you want a hunting buddy?”

Jack smiled at him and kissed his forehead. “Always.”

“Let’s find some kind of netting or a trap in the supply room.” Nathan stood up and Jack immediately hugged him. “I’m going to be Ok.”

“No you’re not. You’re already sounding depressed because you think our wedding isn’t going to go off as planned. Yet, you get to spend the day in paradise _with me_.” Jack said. “And we're doing _our thing_.”

Nathan hugged him and kissed his temple. “Not exactly what I dreamed of.”

“Well, I’m the man of your dreams and I’m going to deliver.” Jack said and kissed his cheek. “I’ll solve this. I'll get you out of that tracksuit and into your business suit and you'll be back to terrorizing people on the surface in no time. Is there a specialist I can talk to?”

“You mean someone who works on the shuttle team? Designed the life support system for the lab? And genetics happens to be one of his specialties?” Nathan asked.

“You?” Jack asked, not really surprised.

“No. Henry.” Nathan said. Jack stiffened. He knew that they couldn't bring another person down here now that the project might be compromised, and that they definitely couldn’t risk another vampire being down here. In case something _was_ a contagion. 

“Well, can _you_ can teach me about self-contained biosystems.” Jack said and played with the zipper on Nathan’s suit again. 

Nathan looked back at the computer as Jack zipped and unzipped his jacket. “We can open up the zip file backups for the ecosystem and see if anything changed. The readings are uploaded, slowly, to the mainframe at GD.”

“Did I help you come up with that?” Jack asked as he zipped Nathan’s jacket all the way up to his neck.

“Kinda.” Nathan smiled and pulled his zipped back down and then went to the computer that managed the readings for the lab. “However, it’s doubtful it will tell us anything. If the ecosystem was out of balance, or contaminated the system, everyone would have shown signs of whatever created the slime as well.”

“We have to find Bob.” Jack said, but neither of them smelled another human when they came upon Teri. Hell they didn’t smell anything or have something trigger their defenses when they were following Teri. So The Slime was not human and not vampire. If it was Bob he was possibly devolving into something because of his unused DNA. It worried him, because this was something that could be really bad for humans and most certainly _modified humans_ like him and Nathan.

“That’s not right.” Nathan said as he looked at the unpackaged data. “The water ionizations are way off.”

“Because it’s piss?”

“No.”

“Could it...alter DNA?” Jack asked. 

“Ionization of water produces free radicals which could target accelerated mutations.” Nathan informed him and then looked up to see the confusion on Jack’s face. “Bottom line is that whatever it is is probably in the recycled water.”

“It’s the piss.”

Nathan shook his head. “I can purge the system, but I can’t reverse changes that are already underway. So, we’re on borrowed time as well.”

“Ah shit.” Jack said. “Ok, you stay here and do science and I’ll go hunt down Bob. We need the first victim to tell us what we’re dealing with. If Bob was the plant guy, he probably felt more at home with his plants than the people.”

“Be careful.”

Nathan watched him leave and went back to analyzing data. He rubbed his face. The water system was mutating DNA. This was not the first case of macro devolution that he had seen. Taggart’s lab had produced some rather disappointing results over the years, but he never started with humans. Whatever this was, was affecting the entire human genome.

Shit. Why did he allow Jack to come down here? Protocols were in place to refuse him access, but he was so confident that they could get this case shut fast that he ignore those protocols. He was too focused on his wedding and now…

"Oh my god, it's a vampire!" Came a shriek from outside.

"Not a vampire!" Jack hollered.

Nathan was out of his seat and in full panic mode as he opened the door and saw Jack sitting on a hissing, spitting, scaly man and Teri standing there absolutely enthralled. What the fuck?

“Hey!” Jack grunted as he tried to slap cuffs on Bob Nobb. Unfortunately the slime was a bit slippery and it made it hard to hold the guy and cuff him. “Guess who was coming to check up on Teri?”

Nathan jumped in to help as Jack wrestled the slimey man into the building. The slime, was numbing their hands, making it hard to hold him. Together they tried to get the man tied down to a gurney, using zip ties. Nathan saw his teeth. Fixed fangs. Scales on his skin. Eyes dulled as they changed over to some other species. This was like seeing the accidental vampire infections of the past. Before they truly understood how to help each other through the process. “Holy shit.”

“Bob Nobb, actually.” Jack said and used the sheets of the bed to wipe his hands clean. “He’s a snake, I think?”

Nathan rushed to find a sedative and then broke a needle trying to get it through his skin. “His skin is too tough to puncture.”

“Where’s Taggart when you need him.” Jack said and looked around for an animal tranquilizer gun. That seemed like something they would have in the emergency kit in Jurassic Park. He grabbed it off the wall as Bob broke a zip tie and lunged at Nathan, teeth bared. Jack didn’t bother to see what was loaded in the gun before firing it into Bob’s neck. 

Nathan watched the man fall back into the bed. Both he and Jack had been recipients of Taggart’s tranquilizer darts, he wasn’t super worried about the man dying. “You’re usually not that fast to fire.”

“Well, I’m the only one who gets to bite you.” Jack said. “Tomorrow night and I don’t want to see someone else's slime teeth marks on you when I do it.”

“Thanks.” Nathan said and went to draw some blood with a thicker needle. Bob was too far gone to complain about his beside manners and the bruising a needle that size was going to do to his vein.

“Anytime.” Jack said and looked at Bob. “So that’s what happens when the animal overwhelms the human side?”

“Animal. _Singular._ ” Nathan said, reminding him that the vampire serum was made of many animals. 

“How would he change the water?” Jack asked. he needed motive and that seemed like the only motive he could come up with. Some random human guy in a isolated lab wouldn't wake up on a Tuesday and decide he wanted to cook up a vampire serum. This guy focused on the snake, just like Taggart focused on the dog. “If he really wanted to turn into a snake, how would he do that?”

“He couldn’t.” Nathan said. “The environment is not controlled from _down here_. He doesn't have the resources down here either.”

“So Derek did it?” Jack asked and looked around at the monitors. “That’s going to suck if he controls everything down here including the weather. We’re going to be the ants under the microscope getting burned soon.”

“There is no sun, remember? The light is artificial. You can't turn it up that high.” Nathan looked at Bob Nobb. Someone was turning though, he was turning into a snake. He was de-evolving into a snake. How. How was this happening so fast? “Dying by storm, wind or rain is a possibility.”

“If there is no sun, how did Bob do any gardening?” Jack asked. “How are we in a rainforest, and yet Bob is growing food for people? That requires sunlight and you don’t get that under a canopy of trees.” 

“Alright, Sheriff.” Nathan said. “Let’s go to the garden and find out.”

Jack escorted Nathan out the back door, not wanting to interact with the scientists if he didn’t have to. He didn’t want to make this about Derek’s people and his, but he didn’t see much worth in talking to those people when they had already been fed the information. Probably live-streamed it. They didn’t have the time. “Do you know where the garden is? I didn’t get a map at the visitors center when I came in, someone was distracting me by taking his clothes off.”

“It’s this way.” Nathan said with a smile. “I told you that you needed me to be the information your phone couldn’t provide.”

“I’m sorry, this is on Google maps?” Jack asked and reached out and grabbed Nathan’s hand. He was worried that this place might be their undoing. Everything sounded so bad. Unused DNA. Devolution. Atavism. 

Nathan squeezed his hand. He had to remind Jack that they were more than just a fusion with one species “Bob Nobb has only shown signs of being a snake. _Just_ , a snake.”

“I wonder if he can unhinge his jaw.” Jack mused.

“Jack.” Nathan groaned. He wasn't that worried.

“Really, it’s just a coincidence we would have a use for that?” Jack leaned in close so he could whisper. “Or rather that  _ I would _ since you can slide teeth down my shaft since I’m not as thick as a tree.”

“Yes.” Nathan said. “Stop trying to ease the tension of the situation by adding sexual tension.” 

“I don’t like coincidence.” Jack reminded him. “It usually isn’t coincidence, it’s usually someone.”

As they came around the bend, Nathan saw the dead plants before Jack did, thanks to the height of some of the trees. “Well, perhaps it’s the same someone who killed Bob’s garden?”

Jack stopped when Nathan did and they both looked at the circle of dead plants. He looked around and something didn’t fit. The garden was not circular. Someone either stood in the middle and sprayed some pesticide or it came from above. He looked up. “Either it was burned by someone down here or burned by someone up there.”

Nathan watched as Jack let go of his hand and ran over to a communicator station. “That’s a phone, Jack.”

“It’s the secret garden phone?" 

“It’s just a phone, it’s not a secret to anyone down here.” Nathan bent down to investigate the plants. Extinct plants that were once thriving, now once again extinct. 

Jack played with the phone station and found a screen with a call log. “Oh, I think someone’s been keeping a secret.”

“Oh?” Nathan stood up and looked at him.

“Teri and Derrick have been talking a lot. A lot.” Jack said and pressed the redial button on the phone.. “So maybe someone did call upstairs to complain to HR about Bob’s snake? Maybe someone turned on the flashlight from above to get the guy to back off?”

Nathan looked up. "Changing the light spectrum could have done this. The wavelengths of the artificial light could have been mutagenic.”

Jack smiled as Derrick’s face appeared on the screen and Nathan came over to stand next to him. “What do you say, Derrick? Does that sound plausible?”

“ _ I never meant to hurt anybody _ .” Derrick said. “ _ I saw the way Bob looked at Teri and I didn’t want her to get hurt.” _

“So you altered the sun specifically over Bob’s garden to destroy his research and send him packing?” Jack asked. Thank God it was just jealous humans and not a jealous Artifact.

_ “I didn’t realize the sun would affect the water supply. I just figured if Bob got sick or his research dried up he’d have to leave the lab. When he recovered or they figured out the plants died of something natural, it would be too late and he wouldn’t be able to come back.” _

“Just get the data to Henry and move everyone to a transition facility ASAP.” Nathan commanded and punched the hang up button. He got into the system from an admin menu and muted them again.

“So the light, the altered rays of the sun, made the water unlock his reptile DNA and grow fangs.” Jack summarized. “Wow. Where have I heard about some light shining down on some garden of Eden and giving people some altered DNA before?” 

Nathan glanced at Jack. “That’s not why I greenlit this project.”

“Your people have a way of stumbling upon parts of the artificial human recipe around here.” Jack reminded him. 

“Well the light only shined on one part of the DNA strand.” Nathan countered.

“Didn’t Carlson unlock a bunch of untapped potential in his brain when a stroke of brilliance hit him while he was playing with reptiles?” Jack asked.

“Coincidence.” Nathan answered and saw that Jack didn’t believe it.

“Right.” Jack said and reached out and played with Nathan’s zipper again. Something wasn't adding up. It all came back around to the Artifact. “We done here? Can we go celebrate not being turned into snakes or getting eaten by one?”

“We should be able to run a physical checkup in the antechamber. Where we were scanned for bacteria before coming in here.” Nathan said. Jack was thoughtful, he knew he didn't like having the Artifact lurking in the background but there was little they could do about that. 

“Cool.” Jack said.

“While we strip down and get out of these clothes.” Nathan added.

Jack quirked an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, someone didn’t want to have sex before the wedding and is going to have to live with the consequences of his decisions.”

Nathan reached out and zipped up Jack’s jacket, all the way to the neck. He didn’t touch Jack’s bite, but laid his knuckles over the collar right over it. Jack took a deep breath. “I’d like to revise that order.”

“Revision?” Jack asked, his throat tight. “Like...maybe _some things_ don’t count as sex?”

“Oh they do, but I think they also qualify as stress relief.” Nathan grinned and unzipped the jacket and stepped away.

“Ok.” Jack said. “You _are_ stressed.”

“I am.”

“That’s a relief.” Jack said and looked towards camp. “So, uh...that tranquilizer should take an hour to wear off? So maybe we can…”

“Send in a tactical team after we get back to the control room?”

“Yes.” Jack said. “After we _get changed_.”

“We don’t need to wrap things up in camp since they’re probably watching us, so let’s just go.” Nathan said and started pulling Jack in the direction of the elevator.

“I’m really excited I’m marrying you tomorrow.” Jack said and grinned. “And excited you made some alterations to the plans to allow for this, uh, unscheduled sidetrip?”

“I turned off the audio.” Nathan reminded him. "You can speak freely."

“Thank God.” Jack said as they reached the elevator, because a week away from you has been hell and I get what you’re trying to do but I miss you so much.”

“You want to sleep together tonight.”

“Yes. And every night. For the rest of our lives.”

“Ok.”

“Just like that?”

“In light of how easy it could be to lose you, yes.”

“We’re OK, right?” Jack asked as Nathan pushed him into the elevator.

“Do you feel Ok?”

“I’m horny but that’s besides the point.”

“We’d be able to feel our DNA changing and de-evolving us to our animal side.”

“But...horny?” Jack asked. "That's kinda animal, primal....whatever."

“That’s just your state of being, if you weren’t horny I would be concerned.” Nathan said and pulled him by his jacket into his arms and kissed him. 

“So we need to strip down and check each other's vitals and stuff to make sure we’re not going to de-evolve because of Lab 27?” Jack sumamrized.

“That sounds like a protocol I can get behind.” Nathan said and hit the 'up' button.

“As in get behind…. _ me _ ?” Jack smiled as he got his ass grabbed. “Oh you are so ruining your appetite for the wedding.”

“Doubtful.”

“Feeling a little possessive?” Jack asked as the elevator stopped and they stumbled back into the room with the bacteria killing light. 

“I just miss you.” Nathan said. “I love working with you and having you close, but I want  _ closer _ .”

“In here?” Jack asked. “You sure?”

“I shut down the cameras. They will not come back on without my override.”

Jack unzipped Nathan’s jacket and ran his hands over his chest. “I have good control of my teeth.”

“Not risking it!” Nathan sing-songed and backed up to start stripping. He stopped and looked at him and grinned. “You did want a stripper though.”

“I actually didn’t.” Jack said and realized what Nathan was implying from how he was taking off his jacket. “Oh God, I hate how you can make that tracksuit look good.”

“It will look better on the floor.”

“So will I.” Jack said and started stripping as fast as he could. “Forget about the tease, that’s been this whole hellish week without you. Get down here on this commercial carpet with me and let’s make sure we’re perfectly healthy before going back out into the real world”

“Deal.”


	8. Undying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The "final chapter" got so stupidly long that I had to give up my hopes of ending this on Chapter 8. Chapter 9 is going to be the last chapter. This was not supposed to get this long.

_ Trick or Treat _

Chapter 8

**Undying**

* * *

  
  


“Nathan?” Jack moaned as he watched Nathan stand up and stretch.

“Jack, we need to get dressed.” Nathan rolled his shoulder and tilted his neck and heard a pop. Jack was ridiculously flexible and he should have known better to be lured into sexy times with him on the hard floor when there were four perfectly good walls available. His bed was very forgiving, plush when it needed to be, and most days he woke up sore from their activities on it. Jack had no qualms about pushing the limits of his body, more so as a vampire. 

“Humpf.” 

Nathan proceeded to go to the cabinets and pull out his clothes to get dressed, knowing Jack wasn’t going to do the same. He never did. He could feel Jack’s heart beat as he watched him, a steady beat that was slightly elevated from his normal. Nathan knew it was adoration and he missed it so damned much this past week. It grounded him, He didn’t want to say anything, he just wanted to listen to that beat and the catch of his breath when he did something Jack liked, which was everything from how he smoothed out his hair to how he buttoned his cuffs. 

Jack didn’t move from his spot on the floor, he chose to enjoy the splendor of Nathan get dressed instead. He never thought he’d appreciate how another man got in his own clothes so much, but Nathan somehow made it look like he was crafting a delicious ice cream sundae, one piece at a time. The cherry on top was the way that he flipped his collar up and put his tie around his neck, preparing to tie the perfect knot. It could be because it reminded him of when he first saw him half naked, or it could be that he just enjoyed so much of what Nathan did. He hated suits, but he loved them  _ on him _ . He cleared his throat, remembering something he should have paid more attention to earlier. “Did you...ask me earlier if I could  _ feel my DNA changing _ ?”

“Yes,” Nathan said, turning to look at him as he lay on the floor unmoving, “And you answered 'I’m horny'.”

“ _ Feel _ my DNA changing?” Jack clarified.

“You should have a heightened awareness of your entire body, but you tend to ignore subtle changes so I improvised and did the feeling  _ for you _ .” 

“With _ your dick _ ?” Jack snorted. He saw Nathan smirk and knew he wasn’t going to get a reply to that however he had to ask, “Did you break your 'no sex before the wedding' rule so you could get me out of the lab before the sun made me a snake?”

“I needed to feel you. I needed you isolated from everything and I needed to feel you to make sure you were going to be ok. I feel you’re going to be fine.” Nathan said, turned around and walked over to him. . 

“You’re not _ that kind  _ of doctor.”

“You also wanted to get out of the lab, as I recall. Presumably for the same reason.” Nathan reminded him as he squatted down to look at him “And it was the modified rainwater that changed Bob Nobb’s DNA, not the sun.”

“Well, it was part of the equation.” Jack reached out and pet the inside of his calf. His pants were so soft. His calf muscles were so fucking nice. Then he reached up and grabbed his tie and pulled him down to him, wanting a kiss. 

Nathan bent forward and kissed him, upside down. “You really need to get dressed. Do you need help standing up?”

“You suckled my neck to determine if I was a reptile?  _ Suckled _ .” Jack said and tugged on his tie to emphasize the point he was trying to make. “Then fucked me? So you could  _ feel _ my DNA changing  _ with your dick _ ?”

“I truly cannot believe that I hope you will never lose this level of post-coital playfulness.” Nathan grinned and stood up, stepped over his naked fiancé’s body and walked over to the bins on the wall. He pulled Jack’s clothes out, shaking them to try and get them to unwrinkle. Of course the sleeves were rolled up and the pants were crumbled in a pile and it was an utterly useless attempt to make him presentable. “I don’t recall you complaining earlier.”

“I didn’t. I’m not. It was great. But like always, I question your motives even if your actions are awesome.”

Nathan carried his clothes over and smiled down at him. “Please get dressed, we still have a lot of things to take care of.”

“We just did a science-solve speed-run down there. A record, even for us. And when you discovered it wasn't an infection and that it altered DNA and those people were all infected you immediately turned on sexy Nathan and lured me out.”

“You wanted to leave too.” Nathan drawled. 

“Well...given a few minutes I might have reconsidered. Especially since I just tied up some snake-man to a table and had you inject him with sedative.” Jack said. “And you _ know _ that’s how I work.”

“Do  _ you _ want to go back down there and turn into a snake?” Nathan asked and smiled down at him. “Perhaps be quarantined in a transition facility and undergo testing that might show  _ your _ body chemistry and vitals are different than most humans? Hmmm? Want to miss our wedding because you’re being poked and prodded by scientists who are very much  _ not me _ ?” 

“No, but I also don't want to abandon those people down there.” Jack said and smiled at his smile, because he loved his smile. “And how do we just walk out of here and say we weren’t contaminated? Because  _ you _ said so?”

“Yes.” Nathan started fanning the pants over Jack, hoping that would motivate him to get up. “And the fact that we stripped down, let the bacteria killing light wash over us and then submitted to a full body scan. Remember?”

“Actually…” Jack bit his lip. He  _ sort of  _ remembered that. He was really in a fog of lust at the time. “I remember you covering my eyes with your hand, being spun around, pushing me against the wall, and  _ suckling my neck _ .”

“At some point in that process the decontamination and scan was done.” Nathan assured him. “I needed to get you to stand still for a moment. You’re always moving.”

“You are the best multitasker in the world.” Jack sighed. He was mad at himself for letting himself get distracted. “What about those people down there?”

“They've been down there for 11 years, _ voluntarily _ . Bob Nobb is sedated and tied up. The sooner you get dressed, the sooner the tactical team can get in there to get Bob and the medical team can get in to help those people before they become snakes.” Nathan reminded him. “Please get some clothes on so that can happen.”

“It is no coincidence it happens the day before we get married. Or that you last with no sex for a week until now. I didn’t need to _feel_ DNA changing to _feel that_.” Jack moaned. “Why am I powerless to resist you or lie to you!”

Nathan didn’t answer, they had already been through this. And Jack was only concerned because he felt he had a lapse in judgment, when in reality it was the best choice. But that was impossible to tell to a self-sacrificing idiot. “I was worried about watching your DNA deteriorate, having you de-evolve into multiple species and losing you. I needed to feel your vitals, feel your body completely. Did you really want to do this on the forest floor with the altered piss water in the mud or mutagenic rainwater falling onto our naked bodies from the plants?”

“No.” 

“Jack, I'm not harming them. I didn’t harm them. They are victims of the experiment they signed up for. They're going to get help. We, however, may be beyond help if we stayed down there. Yes, I rushed you to safety. But we were done with the case.”

“Dirty trick. Touching my bite.” 

“There was no time to argue.” Nathan dangled his pants over him and dropped his underwear in his lap. “ Just like now.”

Jack sat up and grabbed his pants to stop them from possibly hitting him in the face. He was right. “Why a snake? Seems symbolic. Coincidence?”

“Or irony. Bob Nobb was not an exemplary human being.” 

“So the Activision? Is what we have?”

“ _ Atavism _ .” Nathan huffed. “It's sort of similar in the application as the vampire serum tapped into dormant DNA, but that was an infection not a mutation caused by external environmental stimulus.”

“Teri saw Bob and screamed that she  _ saw a vampire. _ It's funny how some teenager who has never been outside of the rainforest defaulted to 'vampire'.” Jack looked up at Nathan as he slid his pants on.

“She only watches movies or talks to Derrick. Pretty isolated kid, remember?.” Nathan said. 

“ _ I  _ defaulted to thinking he was a vampire when he lunged at you.” 

“What are you asking?” Nathan cocked his head. Jack used to accuse him of doing things, but now he simply talked things out. He didn’t fault him for his suspicions or thought process, he simply wanted to be able to ease his mind somehow.

“I don't know. Why do you have people popsicles in cryolab? Why is a snake vampire in the Jurassic Park lab? Why did you escorted me, interviewed people, run analysis, suggest the garden near the exit for answers, then touched my neck just enough to cloud my judgment and then fuck me at work after a week of staying in separate houses? Now I'm on the floor and feeling great because of you and horrible because I suspect you.”

“Mmmm.” Nathan squatted down and tapped Jack's nose. 'You need to get dressed"

Jack looked up at him and reached up to scratch him under the chin. 

“I'm not grandma Lil, I'm not liking that.” Nathan protested but didn’t pull away.

“Tell me why you rushed me out of there, bad kitty. I feel like I’m waking up in the middle of the night hunting for where the damned cat is trying to hide and puke. ”

“You know why.” Nathan said and Jack started stroking his chin hair. 

“You can't protect me over protecting others.” Jack said. “And I’m still not understanding where vampires get their food in space, simulated blood or not. And sustainable agriculture, from what I have seen of it, is gross. Bob Nobb’s piss water snake garden, those clones chicken breasts that made everyone stupid, Lexi’s hemp  _ everything _ .” 

“I can protect you and I will. You make bad decisions in regards to your personal safety. They knew what they were signing up for. They are not signing up for the space mission so they can be food, this is not ‘To Serve Man’ in that regard. Any more questions?”

“I knew what I was signing up for with my job. I know what I might get into.” Jack started stroking Nathan’s cheek. “I still wasn’t prepared for you.”

“I wasn’t either. I walked in there unprepared and I wasn’t going to risk you. And I saw someone deteriorate in front of my eyes and I needed us distant in order to fix it. We needed to leave for our safety and theirs”

“Can you say that next time? Instead of seducing me?”

“It's the only way I have a little control over you and there was no time to argue”

“Ugh”

“The longer you sit there naked, the sooner Bob Nobb's tranquilizers wear off.” Nathan reminded him and Jack’s shoulders slumped and he grudgingly grabbed his t-shirt off his shoulder. “I’m not going to have the Lab collapse in on itself, I’m going to do what I can for them and they are going to be saved. You, personally, do not have to hold their hands through it.”

“I know.”

“OK.” Nathan said and watched him get dressed, sitting on the floor, thinking. “But?”

“But the snake thing? That’s too coincidental. Isn’t that an alchemy deal? And the light shining down and turning people into snakes? That’s too similar to Alexandria.” Jack said and put his T-shirt on.

“The sun changed the rain, which changed the DNA. An element of the equation you are forgetting. Back in Alexandria, Chris and I were  _ inside of a library _ not in the ocean under the lighthouse or rubbing olive oil on each other on the beach. And no, Jack, this is not a Toto song about blessing the rains down in Africa, _ do not _ start singing.  _ Please _ get dressed.”

“What about the alchemy thing with the snake?” Jack asked.

“The ouroborus? Representing eternity and the cycle of nature?” Nathan shook his head. “You’ve been talking to Chris too much.”

“You actually mentioned it the first night we were together. Halloween. Last year. You said the fangs were an ouroboros eating it’s own tail and that you used snakes and opened up all human DNA to get used with the serum.” Jack reminded him.

“So I did.” Nathan shrugged. “I guess you really were into science talk, huh? Should have seduced you the old fashioned way.”

Jack smiled at him. “I can’t complain about how we’ve progressed to suckling.”

“You’ve done nothing but complain.”

Jack shrugged, “I should talk to Chris about it then.” 

“Jack, I don’t need him seeing alchemy where there isn’t any. He’s preachy enough.” Nathan rolled his eyes. “There isn’t anything mystical about the image of a snake eating its own tail, Alchemists simply loved doodling things and acting like drawings had power. In Greek, "ouroboros" means “tail eater”. It’s not that complicated.” 

“I’m worried.” Jack said and stood up and Nathan held out his uniform shirt for him to put his arms in, as if it was a fine suit jacket instead of some wrinkled polyester shirt. He appreciated the gesture, Nathan knew how to say ‘I love you’ in different ways. From the hot and heavy pinning against the wall and licking of his bite, to the gentlemanly action of helping him into his uniform. “Because Henry seems to think he’s unraveled time before by trying to play matchmaker. I’m worried things will unravel again tomorrow.”

“We have no indication the Artifact is unhappy with the way things developed.” Nathan said. Although events did not stop happening. Things came at them faster, just as fast as they solved them. However each ‘Science SNAFU’ opened the doors to a new project they could use on the Astraeus. Each case brought him and Jack closer. The last year had been incredible. Every second was what he had been waiting his entire life for.

“Oh? Did you talk to it when you were  _ inside me _ ? Am I like a  _ phone Jack _ for your Artifact?” Jack snorted then deepened his voice to mimic Nathan. “Alchemists love to act like things have power when they don’t. Drawings are dumb, but my private inner sunshine granted to me by some enigma is Section 5 is totally something I should reference like a horoscope.”

Nathan placed a gentle kiss on his lips as he turned around with a playful smile. “I’m sorry I rushed you out of the dangerous lab that might have unraveled your DNA and made you a hissing, spitting monster.”

“No, you're not.”

“You’re right.” Nathan smirked. “I’m not. I am, however, sorry I upset you.”

“I wouldn’t say, ‘upset’. More like ‘never consulted’?” Jack said and got one more kiss as he finished buttoning up his shirt. “I’m still excited to marry you tomorrow, by the way.”

“I’m glad, because if you made me plan this wedding only to cancel last minute I would kick you back into Lab 27.”

“Liar.” Jack snorted. “And  _ who _ wanted this wedding? Nobody made you plan shit!”

“You’ll love it.” Nathan said. “You have yet to see me in a tux.”

“You keep dangling that in front of me.” Jack said and then admitted. “And do think it will be quite the treat.”

“Good.” Nathan said and placed a kiss on his forehead. “So let’s get back to work so I can get ahead of anything that might ruin our perfect day.” 

Jack rolled his eyes. Like anyone was going to  _ tell them _ something went wrong on their wedding day. It would be hidden, fester and blow up sometime after vows were said. However, that was not his worry right now. He was more concerned about figuring out if there was a connection with how Bob Nobb was turned into a snake and how Nathan was turned into a vampire. He went to the bin to get his gun belt as Nathan went to the door to open it.

Nathan punched in the code that would allow them to leave the room and let the waiting teams in. As soon as the door opened he saw that Derrick was working with Henry and Zane to figure out a solution to Lab 27’s problem. He assumed security teams to be in the hallway awaiting his order to go in. He turned and smiled at Jack who was putting his belt on. “See, it’s getting handled.”

“ _ Who _ have _ you _ been handling with the camera feed off for so long, Spartacus?” Zane said with a wink.

Jack frowned. He didn’t really like Jo’s new boyfriend, really didn’t like that he was a vampire as well, and he sure as hell didn’t like him calling his soon-to-be-husband by cute historical pet names. Especially when Nathan probably was around when Gladiators were all the rage and that really made him really want to see him in  _ that outfit. _

“ _ Decontaminating, _ Donovan.” Nathan said and both Zane and Henry smiled at him. Fucking vampires. Why did he think it was a good idea to bring them all to Eureka? 

“Already on it boss.” Zane smiled and mumbled, “While you were _ on him _ .”

Jack knew Zane was trying to get him to stupidly ask Nathan if the cameras were off while they fucked. He didn’t really like playing Zane’s immature games so he just grinned and put his hands in his pockets and waltzed out the door, not giving him the satisfaction of knowing. He had learned that it was more powerful to make them jealous of his ability to have Nathan ‘Everyone thirsts for me’ Stark whenever, or wherever, he wanted than to be embarrassed by it. Fargo actually burst into tears the first time he just shrugged and admitted he had Nathan for lunch instead of a burger. Jack stepped into the hallway and was greeted by Taggart’s smiling face. He really wished he and Jo worked out, but apparently running naked in the woods with his dog was a little more than his Deputy wanted to deal with in a relationship. “Oh. Of course you’re going to be the one to bag and tag Nobb.”

“I’ll be gentle.” Taggart said with a wink and walked in the room with the tactical team to prepare to go capture the beast.

Jack waited on Nathan to dish out instructions and wished Henry wasn’t in there with Zane. He didn’t know the kid well enough yet to openly ask vampire related questions and he really didn’t know what he was asking. Christopher was the ultimate resource for alchemy related stuff and seemed to actually like discussing it. Especially when Nathan and Henry weren’t around to mock him. The question was, what exactly did he want to ask that he couldn’t Google?

“Ready?” Nathan asked as he stepped out of the room and into the hall, and saw Jack was lost in thought.  _ Great.  _ There was still a chance he’d get tangled up in some investigation and miss the wedding. 

“Yeah.” Jack said and walked with him to the elevator and knew as soon as they got in Nathan was going to tell him to let it all go; that the threads of connections to all this were so thin that could hold not weight. 

“There is nothing to this, Jack. This is simply an accident caused by a scientist who should have known better than to interfere with a project. He was handed an established project and simply had to sit there and monitor it and still managed to fuck it up.” Nathan summed it all up.

"You have to stop being so pissy about these people being handed the opportunities they have, handed to them _ by you. _ " Jack reminded him.

"I'm not pissy, _ they're  _ ungrateful. They are building upon foundations already poured for them, with the state of the art equipment. They’re given everything they ask for, and they should be able to do things with some level of competence. Instead I have an 11 year old project getting scrapped because someone couldn’t handle his issues with a coworker."

" _ Nathan _ ." Jack said softly, trying to keep him from going off on a rant about how everyone here was an entitled idiot and should be able to produce more given their access to the best. The door closed and Nathan folded his hands in front of him which meant that the rant was still coming. Nathan was back in work mode.

"I was there when the sciences were born. Seeing where things began and what these people did not have to do…"

“Back in my day…” Jack interrupted using his ‘Nathan voice’. “We had to make science up because it didn’t exist yet. All we had was the power of our minds and gallons upon gallons of olive oil to massage and lubricate the ideas out of us. We also had free time because we had wealthy patrons who would support us and our work, not quite unlike this set up here in rural Oregon that I helped establish. Boy, did I look good in a World War Two uniform! The Einstein-Grant Bridge guy broke all his time machine light bulbs every time I walked in the room, _that_ good. I bet that uniform still fits, I’ll check it out of the historical society this Founders Day so you can appreciate yet another historical event I will casually mention like it’s nothing.”

Nathan glared at him. “That’s not the point.”

“Kinda is.” Jack said. “ _ Someone _ paid for your trip to Egypt. Didn’t they?”

“Yes, but…”

“I know. You _ totally _ earned that scholarship with your  _ hard work  _ and ‘it’s not called mathematics yet’ skills.” Jack said with a smile and a roll of his eyes, then patted Nathan’s shoulder. “I know, honey.”

“This is  _ not _ the same.”

“Um, you helped push the military to set this place up. Yeah Einstein and Grant did their science thing, but getting this place established took more than a couple of smart guys asking for the government to make them a place in the woods for a science retreat. It took someone who knew how to manipulate people with the means to provide for the benefit of the masses. Cue, Mr. Olive Oiled Abs-icus.”

“I am not letting you write my biography.” Nathan huffed, seeing he would find no sympathy here.

“Your ego won’t let me.” Jack snorted. “You really do need to write it someday, it’s going to be the most erotic novel to ever hit the shelves. Pose for the cover. Dedicate it to me.”

“Stop trying to derail the conversation.” Nathan said as his anger at the Lab 27 incident faded away with Jack’s mocking and warm smile.

"Fine. About _your_ people who don’t work _for me_ ,” Jack said as the elevator stopped. “Not everyone has had  _ all that time _ to do nothing but learn. Cut them some slack. They only get one lifetime, you have had  _ how many _ ? Hell, you’ve even had a few lives you can’t remember because the Artifact hit the ‘undo’ tab on it’s novel about humanity and your love life. You got a lot of chances. You push them, they push buttons and cause mayhem. For someone who has all the damned time in the world, you’re very demanding."

He _ did _ get another chance to make his life go right and he needed Jack to stop reminding him of that on the eve of their wedding. His wedding day, a day, in another timeline, where he died trying to save the universe. The doors opened and Jack stepped out and Nathan was still lost in that thought when Jack turned back to look at him and say goodbye. It was enough to tell Jack that there was something else he wasn’t saying.  _ Dammit _ .

“Oh, there _ is  _ something more to this!” Jack said and Nathan reached for the elevator buttons inside to go to his office and Jack jumped back on the elevator .”You _ are _ worried!”

“Only that you will be the reason our wedding doesn’t happen.” Nathan rolled his eyes as Jack pressed himself up against him and looked like an ill mannered Labrador Retriever jumping on his handler for a treat. 

Jack ran his hands along the lapel of his soft suit jacket and got as close as he could to Nathan’s face without kissing him. “Why? What am I going to find?”

“That’s what worries me, I don't know.” Nathan admitted, the doors closed and the elevator continued on it’s route to his office. “You always find something. You always see a connection even when I don’t.”

“I genuinely don’t see how the fake sunlight using piss-mist water as a spectrum to mutate a guy’s DNA to make him into a lube mucus spitting snake has anything to do with the artifact of Alexandria shining down on your beautiful body as you drank some serum smoothie from the Noah’s Ark recipe collection.”

“Really? Because you seemed to be pretty fixated on that ‘coincidence’ earlier and it impeded your ability to put clothes on.”

“So _it does_ bother you. Because Derrick doesn’t seem  _ that smart,  _ at least not with his actions to remove Bob Nobb from the lab?” Jack said and the elevator dinged and the doors opened at Nathan’s office. “I mean, a highly controlled project that suddenly has a problem after 11 years? Yeah, someone would be checking the computer logs and notice he changed daylight saving time so he could get rid of Bob Nobb.  _ That  _ would get him fired. He did a poor job of planning his crime and cracked fast under the pressure. The guy didn’t deliberately ruin Lab 27 just to out you as a vampire. However, it’s weird he would choose to go about it _ that way _ and have a similar outcome to what made you, _you_.”

“You think the Artifact inspired him and gave him a Eureka moment and compelled him to do it? And then flaunted it in front of both of us?” Nathan asked, dryly.

“ _ You  _ do.” Jack tugged on his suit before letting go. “Which is what worries me. The timing of this...is too convenient.”

“You think the Artifact is going to be the one to object to us getting married tomorrow?”

“ _ You  _ do.” Jack repeated and stepped away so that he could go to his office. “I don’t need ‘Spidey Senses” to see that. I have to figure this out before we say “I do” because I want your day to be perfect too.”

Nathan walked out of the elevator and closed his eyes and stopped. He had to tell Jack what was bothering him. “Something Carl Carlson said has been haunting me since he went into the artifact chamber.”

“What? ‘I’m melting?’” Jack said and Nathan turned to look at him and gave him an annoyed eye roll. The elevator tried to close and he put his hand on the door.

“As he was walking into the chamber, I asked him...what the Artifact was.” Nathan said with a sigh.

“Oh. That wouldn’t be my first question to the obviously suicidal guy, but ya know, we have different approaches.”

“ _ After  _ I told him not to go in there.” Nathan said harshly then softened, Jack wasn’t accusing him of anything. He didn’t need to tell him that he was a little distracted by witnessing a miracle and was shorting out his brain trying to figure out how Carlson did it and why the Artifact was using him as a conduit. He was also immensely relieved, as he didn’t want Jack’s death on his hands, but equivalent exchange right? For a life, a life must be taken. Cue Carlson, a willing sacrifice. “I told him it would destroy him and he said he wasn’t scared.”

“The guy who just got his gecko DNA activated and could regenerate. The guy who had his brain power opened up so he could use all it’s processing power.” Jack said. “ _ That guy _ wasn’t handling being immortal well? _Wild_.”

“No. It wasn’t that. It was like the Artifact was calling him. He was walking into the arms of God and he was welcoming of the embrace even if it meant death.” Nathan said. “He wasn’t afraid of life or dying, he saw something greater than existence.”

“And what did he say  _ to you _ that made such an impact?” Jack asked, quietly. Nathan sounded like he was romanticizing this and it worried him. 

“I asked what it was. He said ‘One day you will know, the question is  _ will you be ready _ ?’”

Jack looked at him and could see how much it had affected him, but he didn’t feel the same sense of awe or impending doom. “Ok.”

“One of the ways my wedding didn’t go as planned,” Nathan said, knowing he shouldn’t go into details about what Henry had told him. He never expanded on that information with Jack because he didn’t want things screwed up because he had knowledge of a future, an alternative future, but the future nonetheless. However, Jack wasn’t going to leave him alone on this. ”Was because I had to stop a time loop and got into a chamber where I was dematerialized in time. If I didn’t, the universe would have unraveled. It would have ceased to exist. So I sacrificed myself and...from what Henry said….you were so overwhelmed with how I looked at you in those last moments that you started questioning things. Even though I was marrying Ally. Even though we never had a relationship. You wondered if...we were  _ more _ .”

“Ok.” Jack said and digested that. He was trying not to freak out about Nathan dying, about the way he could see a shine to his eyes that indicated he was emotional about this. That Carl Carlson, of all people, said something that  _ shook him _ .

“ _ See you around, Jack. _ ” Nathan repeated his own words from another timeline. Words so powerful that the Jack who didn’t love him had been broken by them. Words from a man who was marrying someone else but chose Jack’s name as his last word. “Did I know the timeline was going to be reset? Why did I look at you  _ like that, _ with one look I made it known that  _ we  _ could have been something. On the day I was marrying someone else. It’s something that resonates through the timelines and when I think about it, it hurts. But those memories were erased. I can’t explain it.”

“Well, I’m not letting you step into some time chamber by yourself, so you go...we both go. Just let me know when you go because I have no idea where a time chamber would be. Is it that thing Dr. Grant built? That light bulb thing that he kept breaking because 1950’s you made him want to bang another guy?” Jack said and that didn’t make Nathan’s concern go away. Well, that was a first. His humor not being able to soften him up or ease his worry. This  _ was _ serious.

“No. It’s in the time maintenance lab and I have already taken care of any issues that might start a time loop ever again.” Nathan said. 

“By firing the guy?”

“No. Dr. Weinbrenner got some one on one time to help him with his project.” Nathan admitted and Jack instantly recognized how serious this was because he actually helped one of his scientists with a project before it tried to end the world.

“ _ Oh my god _ , this _ is  _ serious.” Jack said. “Why would you tell me this at the last minute?”

“I was not intending to tell you at all.”

“Well,” Jack sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Yeah, they agreed to not talk about the time travel stuff, but still…

“I considered it handled until Lab 27.”

“I thought the whole thing about not talking about time travel was so you didn’t influence things.”

“I’m pretty sure Henry blew that out of the water the first night we fucked.”

“Weird way to put that.” Jack frowned.

“Sorry.” Nathan said. “I am worried but that is not going to prevent me from going forward with our wedding tomorrow.”

“Hey, I’ll do my Sheriffing thing and get some answers. Interview the experts. I’ll tell you what I find at dinner tonight?”

“I suppose I can’t convince you to honor my request to spend time apart leading up to our wedding now that I..”

“Suckled my neck and fucked me on the carpet of some bacteria-free zone between GD and Jurassic Park?” Jack finished the sentence for him and stepped back and let go of the door. He grinned at him and as the elevator door closed, shook his head and said, “No.”

“Justice being served.” Nathan said and Jack’s eyes lit up along with the grin on his face. Then the doors closed and he let his light leave the room. He sighed and resisted the urge to go after him. He _had_ to get back to work if he intended to have a long honeymoon, in the event the wedding went off without a hitch. 

He couldn’t force himself to move though. He stood there and stared at the elevator and wondered what that other version of him thought in those last seconds before he ceased to exist; as he realized that everything he had told himself had been a lie. That the last word he wanted to say was the name of the man he had pushed aside at every chance in a race to be Allison Blake’s husband. He loved Jack Carter more than anyone he had ever loved and it felt so genuine in a way that it never had. Could he really accept another life , another timeline, where this wasn’t the case? If it came down to another reset to “get things right” did he really want to accept that maybe this relationship wouldn't be part of that new time? 

The answer was no. Perhaps it was selfish to tell the universe to end because he wouldn't give up Jack, perhaps he understood Henry all too well on this one. Perhaps he finally understood what Carlson meant.

The unending cycle of life, meant that something had to die in order for something new to be created. The Ourobrous was the symbol of that. 

And the Artifact had been ‘dead’ for almost a year, its energy stored in the people it touched. Most notably him and Jack. Two people who were going to be united by choice tomorrow, tomorrow a day that he knew he died.

And for the first time in centuries, he was terrified.


	9. Infinity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said "one last chapter" (ok I said that a few times) BUT I meant it this time. Unfortunately for you that means this chapter is now over 11,000 words. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

I am giving this to you as a visual for the “selfie” later in this chapter. [ https://bleedingcoffee42.tumblr.com/post/626363483174453248/from-eurekaunscripteds-flickr ](https://bleedingcoffee42.tumblr.com/post/626363483174453248/from-eurekaunscripteds-flickr)

Also when you read the words “Prince Humperdick” please think of this: <https://mock-ing-bird.tumblr.com/post/637215515173158912/i-justgonna-leave-this-one-here-damn>

* * *

_Trick or Treat_

Chapter 9

**Infinity**

* * *

“Hey, Chris, I have a question about that snake thing you have on your wall.” Jack hollered as he walked into Dactlyos’s art shack as he was not expecting the man to be sitting at his desk. As he walked in, his cop instincts immediately went into overdrive as he realized something was _not right_ with the alchemist---he was smiling. Jack got closer and Chris didn’t move, he got to his desk and saw what he was doing: He was grading papers from his art class while _smiling_ . Jack looked around the desk and noticed the reason for that: there was a pan of brownies on the table. That was his pan, or rather S.A.R.A.H.’s, which meant those were Lexi’s brownies! Then it hit him. _The smell._ Pot was leaking out of his pores. “Chris?”

“Hey…” Christopher shook his head as if that was going to help him any. “What drawing? The one Lucas made of your daughter as Wonder Woman?”

“ _What_?” Jack asked. Zoe’s boyfriend was drawing her in wonderwear? W _hat_!?! Nope, not getting derailed here. He was not going to ask because it was a school project which meant that it better be PG-13 rated. Jack pointed at the wall instead. “That one. The ouroboros.”

“Drawing is yours if you want it. Wedding present.” Chris said and then laughed. “Way to find something that costs more than Nathan’s stupid expensive Scotch, but a cost I’m willing to pay to mock his modern science and remind him of his origins. I’m sure it will look great next to your bobblehead collection and his Nobel. Or maybe above your bed…as a reminder of that night you tried to swallow him and shredded his dick and all he could think about was putting a ring on your finger.”

“Are you high?” Jack asked, knowing the answer. His eyes were bloodshot. His vampire body was processing the THC faster than a human body, which was why _he smelled it_ coming off his body. And half the brownie tray was gone, as well as several gallons of water from the looks of the bottles in his recycle bin. 

“It’s the only way I can stop from getting overwhelmed and biting your sister.” Chris moaned. “This is punishment for mocking Nathan for biting you, I know it. Or maybe for teasing you about biting him.” 

“Ok, let’s not overshare.” Jack said. “Let’s just leave it as Nathan likes his Tiramisu and you like pot brownies and we’re just talking about dessert.”

“I see why Nathan lost control over you. Apparently it runs in the family.” Chris said.

Jack rubbed his face with his hand. “I feel like I’m in high school all over again.”

“I can’t believe your dumb nicknames for each other come from you guys walking in on each other as teenagers.” Chris said. “'Stretch', I get. Lexi is flexible in a way that can not be classified as just ‘Yoga enthusiast’. You... _what_ did you do, _who_ did you do, to earn the name ‘Monkey’?”

Jack grudgingly answered knowing the alchemist would get hung up on finding truth and answers, especially under the influence of drugs. “I did a gymnast in the locker room bathroom.”

Chris thought about that. He frowned, not getting a visual for how anyone could ‘monkey’ around in a high school bathroom. He was a teacher, he should know. 

Jack groaned and divulged more. “Men’s gymnast. Who was able to hit some _spots_ that I had never had touched before. I might have been vocal and he might have convinced me to use one of the stalls as a creative way to reach those spots.”

“Wow.” Chris said and hummed at that. So they used the stall walls for…. _well damn_. That was a feat of strength and creativity. No wonder Nathan seemed to show up to meetings sore.

_You’re not some bathroom fuck, Jack._ Jack suddenly remembered those words from Nathan and his first night together. At the time it made him feel like he wasn’t just going to be some quick fling, that he was being elevated to something more than _just_ a fuck. It warmed him in a way it shouldn’t have and it was weirdly out of place for Nathan ‘I’ll get you off with my voice alone’ Stark who never said anything in bed that was not about the experience. Something clicked, like there was a bleed through from some other time when Nathan _knew_ about his teenage sexual escapades. When high school all-star pitcher Jack Carter was eagerly experimenting with his bisexuality in the high school locker room during a pep rally. He definitely never shared that information with this Nathan Stark prior to last Halloween night. Had it come out in some GD science experiment gone wrong, everyone would have mentioned it at the community virtual ball games. What the hell did _that_ mean!? 

“Sounds like the Olympics. _God_ were _those_ good times. The originals at least.” Chris mumbled and smiled.

“Wait.” Jack said as his brain processed that. This was how everything was delivered to him about his fellow vampire friends. Just random comments about some major historical event they participated in. “You guys…”

“Come on, Jack.” Chris snorted. “ _Look_ at us. You don’t think we participated in the greatest sports contest created by our own culture? Of course we went to the Olympics.”

“I am doing my best to get caught up on the last two thousand years of your lives by using context clues when you guys snort derisively and speak dismissively of historical figures and events while also juggling a new relationship in a town that is always on the brink of triggering an extinction event. So, um, no I didn’t read _that_ chapter yet.” Jack countered.

“I bet Nathan is saving that for when he takes you back to Greece on your honeymoon.” Chris nodded. “Kinda sets the mood for things when you talk to your husband about competing against other naked men for the title of champion.”

“Does that mean?” Jack looked over at the collection of old Greek pots on the shelves. He just thought that was for ‘art history’ or ‘to remind us of our history’ sake. “The vases? Pots of the naked guys…do I _know_ those naked guys on the pots?”

“Those _I_ made at Tesla for my class and, no, I did not make them to commemorate my ex-boyfriend’s many victories. He had plenty of other people to do that for him.” Chris sighed and waved at one in particular. “Now _that_ one in the glass case over there, it was a souvenir. Everyone has some pottery commemorating Nathan and his Pankration win. And don’t get me started on _the sculptures_ because they make me feel things as an artist. I’m already struggling with my libido thanks to your sister, I don’t need to have feelings about a modeling gig your future husband did 2000 years ago.”

“He did _what_?”

“Oh god, talk about his ego. They called his statue the _Real Colossus._ You would not believe how polished that marble became from everyone rubbing his dick. Surprised it’s not one of the wonders of the ancient world, but you know how insecure conquerors are about statues and history. Especially when they can not compare to _that shiny dick._ ”

Jack cleared his throat and took a moment. This was how all his history lessons were delivered, babbling about memories, because history was memories for them. As quickly as they talked about some incident like it was yesterday, the moment was gone before he could ask for elaboration. The last year of infodumps from Nathan, Chris and Henry about everything from science, to history to vampire facts he needed, had his head constantly swimming. Now, on the eve of his wedding, he was finding out the guy he was marrying had statues and pots celebrating his naked body from Ancient Greece floating around somewhere. _His_ future husband was on a pot, which was throwing him more than the fact that Chris Dactlyos was on pot. Jack reached out and slapped Chris’s hand as he thoughtfully went to eat another brownie. “Hey! No more brownies until you answer my questions!”

Chris sighed as he looked at the clock. “Why do you want to know about the ouroboros?” 

“Because I just watched some dude get retro-fit into a snake, complete with numbing saliva and a very very Hollywood vampire vibe.” 

“Sounds like the stripper Lexi wanted to hire.” Chris giggled.

“Where the hell is she finding these people in rural Oregon?”

“Fargo. He volunteered.” Chris started laughing. The image of Fargo in a snake suit, shedding clothes like it was old skin, was just too funny. Oh...boy…. did he want to sculpt that! Not nearly as much as he wanted to recreate that sculpture of Nathan, and he hated working with marble. He could have it straddling the Divinci Bridge! Welcome to Eureka, indeed. “I’m sorry, I want to take this seriously but...I am _really_ high and I just...am having a hell of time with how potent these things are.”

“Dammit.” Jack rubbed his face as Chris burst into laughter. “So, a fake sun shining down through the perfect atmosphere, through a liquid made out of recycled piss that could change a normal guy's DNA so that he turned into a snake...is just reading into things?”

“What _the hell_ are you talking about?” Chris asked. “And _what_ have you been reading!?”

“Do you know about Lab 27?”

“Kinda.” Christopher said and waved his hands around. “In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t exactly fit in with Nathan and Henry’s little _modern_ science club. I’m pretty content to work with the materials right in front of me and not have to create it just to play God.”

“Yeah, I’ve gathered.” Jack said and ran his hand through his hair. Maybe having Chris a little ‘chill’ was going to help him out more than he thought. “Well, one of the researchers got turned into a snake-man because the director of the lab tried to bake him into getting sick so he’d leave the experiment.”

“I didn’t realize they allowed marihuana down there. Sustainable agriculture...huh. Lexi was right. Hemp really is the universal solvent! Alkahest, no, Alka _hemp_.”

“Not _baked_ like that.” Jack said as Chris started to giggle some more. “Bob Nobb was in his garden and the artificial sun got turned up to mutated genetic wavelengths to kill his plants and it accidentally changed the water which was repurposed urine and that turned on his snake DNA and he grew scales and fangs and had that numbing saliva slobber.”

“Bob _Nobb_ ? That’s a real name?” Chris kept laughing. “And nothing you said is anywhere near coherent and _I’m the one_ who’s high.”

“Well I’m not the scientist. It’s close enough to the explanation.”

“Urine….I used to know an alchemist who used boiled down urine to make phosphorus.” Chris said and laughed. “He tried to keep it a secret, _as if boiling almost 1500 gallons of urine was going to be kept secret_. I’m...wondering if I should try his recipe. I’m going to have plenty to work with here. ”

“Okay, before we got into another history lesson, or a disgusting science experiment, about people you’ve met or worked with, I really need some info about _the ouroboros_ .” Jack said and pointed at the picture before Chris could ramble some more or think about starting a urine boiling experiment. “ The snake eating its own tail, ouroboros, which is _alchemy._ ”

“It originated in Egyptian culture.” Christopher rubbed his eyes of tears from laughing. “Oldest example is in the tomb of King Tut. An ouroboros circling his head and feet. Symbolizing the sun god Ra united with Osiris.”

“Ra the _sun_ god?” Jack asked.

“And humans were created by Ra’s tears and sweat. Hey! That has urea too!” Chris said and started to write these things down, lest Nathan come down here to yell at him about feeding his fiancé bad information. He would give Jack notes, because he didn’t want to be misquoted. Unfortunately all that was on his notepad so far was a doodle of two stick figures humping in a bathroom stall. ”And Osiris is the god of fertility, farming, vegetation, the dead, resurrection and life.”

“What a multitasker.” Jack said. What this possibly what was going on here? Was the artifact showing that things came full circle? Was this all tracing back to their origins, back to Alexandria? If that’s where the ouroboros led, then it seemed like there were answers there. “Ok, this all sounds a lot like what was going on in Lab 27. The artificial sun, the altered rain making the sustainable agriculture farmer guy into a snake.”

“The end of the tail is also a phallic symbol and the mouth a…” Chris started doodling on his stick figures.

“I get it.” Jack tried to cut him off before this circled back around to...

“Mouth _with_ _fangs_.” Chris bubbled with laughter again. “ _Two thousand_ years and nobody, _nobody,_ has brought Nathan to his knees like that! And he loved it enough to look at you and say, I have to marry this man who just ripped my foreskin off with his baby vamp teeth!”

“Yeah. Well, it grew back.” Jack said and then ran his hand through his hair again out of embarrassment. He should have never told them, but both Henry and Chris were ultra concerned about Nathan taking a day off to recover and thought there had been some kind of adverse reaction to his blood or that he killed him. In hindsight, he probably should have just told them to see for themselves and go visit Nathan at home. He’d never live this down, and _never_ in this crowd was a very very long time. He huffed, trying to get Chris back to the conversation they should be having. “Sun God. Fertility God. King Tut. Continue?”

“Yes. Ra-Osiris. Ra will descend into death and become Osiris. Then rise again, as a new Ra. It’s like the sunset, giving way to sunrise. The circle of life. They are Twin Souls.”

“Uh…” Jack stared at him. “Like _soulmates_?”

“It’s way more complicated than that, but okay.” Christopher said. “Is this for your wedding vows? You two being soulmates? A ring, a circle, a symbol of infinity? That’s cute but Nathan will not appreciate it that much. Never got into the history of things, always about the future and being bossy.” 

“What about the snake _swallowing itself_?” Jack asked.

“It’s a circle of birth and life. In Egypt, the snake was a guardian called Mehen. It coils around Ra to protect him at night.” Chris drank some water. 

“What about alchemy?” Jack prodded, getting him back on track.

“Well, in alchemy, the ouroborus dates back to Alexandria.”

“ _Of course_ it does.”

“‘All is one’ is a phrase that dates back to the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra.”

“Well you guys probably hated her considering she slept with Marc Antony and you guys hate Romans even if they stabbed Caesar. Is this about her getting bit by the snake and dying?” Jack asked.

“Not _that_ Cleopatra. This was a pseudonym. _Cleopatra the Alchemist_ was a 3rd century Greek lady. Active in Alexandra invented the alembic for distilling.” Chris pointed to his old distilling device. Jack, as always, was pretty interested but clueless. “Chrysopoeia means “to make gold”. You really should learn Greek.”

“Give me time. I’ve only learned the bad words and related verbs.” Jack said. “So Not-the-Queen Cleopatra made a book about _transmuting gold_ ? As in _the philosopher’s stone_?”

“I am proud of you for making that connection.” Chris said and wrote that down in his notes and gave Jack an A+ for mentioning alchemy. 

“I learn.” Jack shrugged.

“You just don’t learn Greek.” Chris shrugged. “What the hell were we talking about?”

“The ouroboros. It’s meaning.”

“Yes. ” Chris said. “Balance.”

“Nathan said something about the ecosystem getting out of balance.” Jack said to himself. This was all a stretch. 

Chris continued, ignoring Jack’s contribution to the conversation. “The duality of existence. Night and day. Yin and Yang. The cycle of life, through birth and death and rebirth. The cyclical nature of time and energy. Opposites that don’t contradict each other but compliment and complete each other. You and Nathan.”

“Am I reading into this? Can the Artifact really influence people and make them hurry up and experiment? Or try to roast some guy who was getting friendly with a girl he shouldn’t?” 

“I really want to help you, especially since you are being serious about having an interest in alchemy, but I really did get high in anticipation of your sister coming over…and I am having a hell of a time following this conversation. I’m also embarrassingly hard from the combined thought of Lexi arriving and that fucking Olympiad sculpture of Nathan that I haven’t thought about in years.” 

“Say no more.” Jack said, understanding that tone of voice and not wanting to listen to his sister talk dirty about her new boyfriend or her boyfriend talk about his fiancé like that. 

“You should ask Henry.” Christopher suggested. “He’s Artifact savvy and he’s lived the timelines when things didn’t work out.”

“So you _do_ think there is something to this?” 

“Ra-Osiris.” Christopher said, thoughtfully. “A cycle of rebirth. I think there is something there. Not that I’m going to tell Nathan that, his ego doesn’t need me comparing him to a God, but you seem to like telling him shit like that so...there you go! Happy Wedding!”

“Cool. Thanks.” 

“And uh…”Chris reached for another brownie. “Nathan would probably like hearing about Kekule and the benzene ring more than anything about the ouroboros of Egypt. If you’re thinking about vows.”

“I’ll look into that.” Jack said and hoped that Henry was finally free from saving those people from becoming snakes, because he had more questions now than when he started. Who the hell was Kekule? Was this going to be someone else that saw Nathan naked, like oh, _all of Greece_ and _everyone who decorated with Greek pots in the last two thousand years_?

* * *

Henry frowned as Jack walked around his garage rattling off things about statues, pots, pot, Lab 5, Lab 27, Egyptian Gods, Cleopatra, the ouroboros symbolizing his little ‘fang accident’ during a blow job, and how he thought the Artifact was recreating its Library of Alexandria vampire moment with artificial sunlight and recycled piss. Then there were questions about Kekule and his benzene ring dream. If anyone was the complete opposite of Nathan in delivering and processing information , it was definitely Jack Carter. “What exactly are you asking, Jack?”

“I...don’t know?” Jack admitted. He felt lost in all this information, like he was swimming in the middle of an ocean watching the Titanic slowly power towards the iceberg that sank it; screaming and being unheard, swimming and getting no closer. Unfortunately in this metaphor, the Titanic was Nathan and that iceberg was the cold bite of the Artifact sending everything he built to the bottom of the ocean.

“If the world is ending tomorrow, I truly believe the Artifact will reset it again for us.” Henry said. “The future is very important to it and the future depends on the two people it has touched.” 

“Why are you all so accepting of what the Artifact may want and yet won’t accept what anybody, or rules of science, may want?” Jack asked. 

“Some things are beyond our control Jack. I’ve learned that harsh lesson over and over.” Henry said. “However science, and the rules that go with it, are man’s creation. We study, share, craft rules, and accept it’s all temporary; accept it as the new standard that needs to hold up to scrutiny. Anyone who accepts that a law of the universe, that man wrote, is set in stone is not much of a scientist.”

“Ok.” Jack huffed. He could have used this pep talk when he first came to town. This would have been a useful argument the whole damned time!

“However, your ability to see the influence of the Artifact shining through is quite intriguing.” Henry said. 

“I’m not sure what that means.” Jack threw up his hand, exasperated. He didn’t come here to talk philosophy or theology, he needed to know _why_ this all connected and if something was planning to kill them all tomorrow.

“From ancient Egypt to Lab 27, _you_ see where the Artifact has left its mark. The tombs of Tutankhamen to Bob Nobb.” Henry said thoughtfully. Scientists were always looking to improve, always looking to create something new. It made sense to have someone who saw things for what they were, someone ‘average’ like Jack Carter. 

“Except I can’t see what it wants _with us_.” Jack said. “Especially showing us this snake thing the day before I put a ring on Nathan’s finger and vow to be his husband for all eternity. On this world and whatever the next one is.”

“Unlike Nathan, I don’t think the Artifact wants to leave.” Henry said. “All the technology that we have been given because of the experiments you two have worked on, has yielded products that we could use to repair Earth. To help it heal. To restore it.”

“And how to turn bad people into snakes using sunlight and piss water?” Jack asked.

“If you ask some people, calling politicians snakes is an insult to reptiles.” Henry smirked.

Jack could see how Henry could end up in charge of GD to change things instead of buffer things from Washington like Nathan did. “Why trust us with a weapon like that? Or anything we’ve created?” 

“Because, as immortals, we have a long term investment in our planet. Just like the Artifact.” Henry stood up to get some coffee. 

“Just like Eureka.” Jack said, a little familiarity of the situation suddenly coming through. “It’s picking people it wants to work with.”

“Except Kim.”

“I don’t believe that.” Jack said, turning to look at him as he pour coffee. 

“So you’re willing to reset the timeline again to try and save her?” Henry asked. “Take the chance that things don’t work out in your life?”

“If tomorrow is going to go into some fucked up Groundhog day episode, then yes." Jack replied, honestly. "I’m not going to have a choice, from what you tell me.”

“Nathan won’t.” Henry said. “I won’t. I can’t watch her die again.”

“Do you think there is something to this re-birth cycle that Chris was talking about? Especially since the Artifact is now “dead” and Nathan thinks that it transferred its energy to him and me?”

“I think Kim is the person who would be able to answer that.” Henry replied. 

“But you used a piece of the Artifact to time travel. How can you not understand it?” Jack asked. 

“I didn’t have anything to lose.” Henry shrugged.

“I have everything to lose!” Jack said and ran his hand through his hair. “And nobody is helping!”

“We’ve been through so many ends of the world, Jack. At some point you just want to accept the inevitable.” Henry sat down with his coffee. “I’m tired. I’m tired of watching Kim die.”

“What about this benzene guy?”

“August Kekule?” Henry asked, surprised. “He dreamt of a ouroboros and woke up, had a Eureka moment, and discovered the shape of benzene to be a ring shape because of that dream.”

“Probably had some of my sister’s brownies.” Jack mumbled. He had bothered Henry enough, he didn’t want to flaunt his relationship with Nathan in his face since Kim’s loss was still so fresh. Didn’t stop Nathan from asking Henry to marry them. Benzene dude sounded like he could be one of those things he could bring to Nathan and find out he fucked him, or proposed to him or something. Just the way shit went around here these days. “Ok, I’ll figure it out.”

“How did you come across Kekule and his Benzene dream?” Henry asked. 

“Chris said that Nathan would be more interested in hearing about _that_ in my vows than about an ouroboros. Chemist and all, I guess.” Jack sighed. “I hope.” 

“Something that you may want to look into, if you’re looking for a clever wedding vow, is Ouroboros programs and their use in Artificial Intelligence.” Henry suggested.

“I’m sorry. _What now_?” Jack stopped in his tracks. “Did you say this connects to AI? And nobody made that connection to Nathan?”

“ _Nathan_ brought that connection to _Artificial Intelligence_. It solved a problem of having to write a program for every problem the computer might face. There is no independence in that. Ouroborus programs have no beginning and no end. They keep going until they come back around to where they started. It kind of eats itself, as it just keeps going and working on it’s own. It’s self-replicating, it’s self-healing. It’s always building upon what it already knows. In effect, the ouroborus program creates consciousness and a neural network, moving beyond just artificial intelligence of problem solving, into an artificial human. A better human.”

“'Cause what’s the point of creating something if it’s not perfect?” Jack quoted something Chris liked to say a lot. And circles were perfect. Vampires were perfect people, at least in this crowd. Eureka was the perfect environment for science. The Astraeus would be perfect for humanity's next step. Nathan was perfect for him. Except this wasn't a perfect scenario because Kim was still dead.

“Probably more interesting to talk about than benzene, but it would be a huge hit with the wedding guests. Especially with your unique spin.” Henry said. “Nathan loves chemistry, but he didn’t get along with Kekule.”

“Well, not if you think it's weird a dude gets a ‘Eureka moment’ from a dream about snakes and makes some chemical ring out of it when he wakes up. That’s a spark of something that seems like it came from somewhere else.” Was the Artifact giving random chemists dreams to help them fix issues? Why did this ‘dream’ sound more like some weird kink fantasy about getting someone's ‘tail’ swallowed and then waking up and spinning some bullshit about how it was ‘enlightenment’. An, of course, Nathan knew the guy. So there was a good chance this was a dream about him. Especially if he didn’t like the guy and was bitchy, sarcastic, scientist Nathan who, as Jack could attest, was kinda hot. 

“Dreams…can be weird.” Henry reminded him.

“Yes, I remember that dream machine fiasco, _thank you very much_ .” Jack said. Like he needed a reminder of _that dream_ where he was naked and walked into Café Diem for his meeting that relationship auditor for ‘government approval’ to date Nathan. Or the dream that was a kinkier version of _Princess Bride_ , where he was Wesley and Nathan was Prince Humperdick; Prince Humperdick who was a delicious biker King on a throne of abandoning your principles to bow down to a barefoot God and answer ‘as you wish’ to every fantasy you had ever had. Yeah, it was a good thing _that dream_ got everyone off because he never heard a complaint about it. Jack muttered, “I doubt this Benzene guy had a naked dream about _a snake_.”

“Never know.”

Sometimes, Jack hated that he had to question everything. “ _Did he_?”

“Do you really want to talk about _that_ the night before you get married or do you want to, I don’t know, write your vows?” Henry asked. He and Nathan didn’t agree on much, but letting Jack improvise his wedding vows on the spot was one thing they agreed would be bad.

“Never! I am a man of impulsive bursts of emotion and that is not something that can be contained in written words.” Jack said with a smile, knowing Henry was not in the place for discussion right now. This would all be hard on him, because the world not ending tomorrow meant that he was never meant to have Kim. Hoping the world _would_ end to prove otherwise, made him a bad person. There was no way to comfort him. “But I should go home. Thanks for answering my question.”

“I still don’t know what that question was.”

“I don’t either.” Jack admitted. 

  
  
  


* * *

Nathan was exhausted and didn’t notice what time it was until he heard a knock on his door. He still wasn’t finished with his project, but at this point there was no keeping Jack away. He went to the door and opened it. Jack was standing there smiling at him with a bag of take out from Café Diem in his hand. “I told you not to get me a stripper.”

Jack’s smile broadened. “Well, when I’m around you the clothes just seem to fall right off, so if you think I’m worth throwing money at, please do.”

“Are you done with work for the evening?” Nathan asked and pulled his wallet out and removed a one dollar bill. 

“I am. I turned over the department to Jo and she is super excited to be in charge for a few weeks.” Jack said and smiled as he got a dollar folded and put down his shirt. “She really wants my job.”

“Ally was pretty excited to take over GD as well.” Nathan said and stepped aside to let Jack in. “So, we’re officially on vacation.”

Jack gave him a kiss. “I can’t _believe_ you would say _that_ . Isn’t tempting fates a Greek mythology thing? _You_ should know better.”

“At this point it’s just a given that something will happen, so why pretend it won’t be a working vacation?”

“Because you wanted to go on _a cruise_.” Jack said. “Hard to fix Eureka when we’re in the middle of the Atlantic.”

“You don’t want to fly, what choice did I have?”

“You still haven’t told me how we’re getting to Florida to get on the boat.” Jack said, now realizing why he had such a perfect analogy prepared for watching the Titanic sink. He was a little worried about this cruise. He was worried about being unreachable in case of a work emergency. Which Nathan would know, which would be another good reason to have a honeymoon on a boat. “Which means it’s either flying or worse than flying.”

“And I won’t tell you until it’s time to leave. Besides, you told me you wanted to get the tour of, and I quote, ‘your old stomping grounds’.”

“Well, when you’re marrying an older guy...” 

“Wedding’s off.” Nathan said coldly as Jack’s mischievous smile only got wider. He knew he was slightly sensitive about his age when said _like that_.

Jack kissed him and Nathan struggled to maintain his glare, but sheer determination was keeping that cold look in his eye. Jack was immune to it and started running his hands over Nathan’s dress shirt, his handsome and dramatic fiancé had enough time to shed the suit jacket and necktie but not enough time to get changed into something less formal. Or go to the bedroom to get rid of his keys and wallet. That meant he came home and worked. Worked on what? “I do want to see where you used to live. I want to see the world the way you tell it in weirdly disconnected antidotes about people you thought were idiots or colorful stories of people you fucked.” 

“Everything is ruins.” Nathan softened up. 

“Not the way you talk about things.” Jack said. “ Holy shit, do I want to see you naked on some beach rubbing yourself with fresh pressed olive oil like the ‘old days’. Yes. Maybe even buy some pottery from a local vendor who has no idea you’re that ancient Greek dude on the pot. I want this more than I ever thought I would want to admit I would.”

“And I want to share that with you and I never thought I’d want to reminisce.” Nathan said and wrapped his arms loosely around Jack as he ran his hands over his chest and smiled at him. 

“So let’s start by sharing about the Artifact and all these little connections that I’m making that you’re pretending aren’t a big deal.” Jack replied.

“Let’s have dinner first.” Nathan said, sighing as he stepped right into that one. Sighing because it was inevitable. 

“Is this why you wanted to remain apart for the last week?” Jack asked as Nathan kissed his forehead and walked into the kitchen.

“No, that was actually so I could get your wedding present finished. When you’re home with me, I don’t get things done.”

“You... _made_ me a present?” Jack asked, surprised. 

“Yes.” Nathan said. "I made you a ring, why wouldn't I make you a present?"

“That took _you_ all week?” Jack asked. The guy who invented things in a few hours in order to solve everyday Eureka disasters, took _all week_ to make him a wedding present?

“And you don’t get it until tomorrow.” Nathan added.

Jack pouted and put the food bag on the table, then went over to Nathan as he got plates out of the cabinets. He hugged him. “Yeah, I do.”

“You’re ridiculously corny.” Nathan said but smiled and relaxed into his embrace. 

“You just eat up the attention. Like Grandma Lil.” Jack said and reached up to ruffle his hair. “Pretty kitty.”

“I can’t wait for your sister to move in with Chris so that damned cat ends up using his casting sand as a litter box.” Nathan said and looked over his shoulder. “Speaking of…”

“He was high.” Jack said and pulled back from Nathan to undo his gun belt and get more comfortable. “He was giggling and his eyes were bloodshot and he reeked of pot. I guess I should be happy he’s “using protection” when with my sister, whatever way he arrives at that. But weed? We can’t eat garlic but weed is ok?”

“We _can_ eat garlic, it’s just digestively upsetting. Which is why you stay in your own house, alone, after feasting on all-you-can-eat shrimp scampi.”

Jack walked over to the safe Nathan installed in his pantry and punched in his code. He put his gun away, locked it up and came back out of the pantry unbuttoning his shirt. Nathan already had a glass of beer poured for him and dinner plated and ready. He settled into his seat and reached over for Nathan’s hand, squeezed it once and then kissed his knuckles. “Going to make this Mediterranean cruise pretty interesting.”

“You just need to take the damned pills I made before you eat.” Nathan reminded him. “It will neutralize the garlic in your stomach and you can eat as much as you want.”

“I already feel like we’re an old married couple.”

“Don’t say it.” Nathan threatened.

Jack smiled at him and then sipped his beer. For someone who regularly mentioned he was over 2000 years old, he definitely was sensitive about being older than him. He savored his beer and watched Nathan start to eat. “We really _are_ going to be an _old_ married couple.”

“I love your revelations.” Nathan said as he ate a forkful of rice. He chewed, swallowed and shook his head. “I guess we should get this out of the way now before you’re at the altar yelling, ‘Holy shit, we’re getting married!’”

“It’s been so busy and I haven’t let it sink in.” Jack said and blinked. “ _Holy shit_ , we’re getting _married_.”

“And there it is.”

“Everything just…” Jack leaned back in his chair and watched Nathan’s eyes sparkle with amusement. He knew this was coming. Of course he did. “It just happened. It’s been so easy.”

“It will be a year at the end of the month, a year since you came to arrest me for being a vampire or a murderer, you really weren’t clear on that.” Nathan shook his head. He still didn’t know what to make of that night other than ‘good’. 

“This has been the best year of my life.” Jack said honestly. “Everything has felt so right.”

“Except for everything that you’re suspicious of.” Nathan reminded him.

“Well, a year ago you told me you felt the Artifact _inside me_ after we fucked for the first time.” Jack said. “And that the timelines were reset because the Artifact wasn’t happy. So, yeah, I’m sort of justified in side-eyeing that thing.”

“Which brings us to tomorrow.” Nathan said. 

“And you’re worried too.”

“I don’t want to be, I don’t want to ruin this day. Our day.”

“Henry seems to be on the ‘Whatever happens is out of our control, just enjoy the ride’ program.” Jack said and wondered if he should bring up his revelation about his ‘Monkey’ business back in high school and that comment made a year ago by a man who had no reference for that. 

“I can’t see an alternative to that.” Nathan said. “I did talk to Kevin tonight, he seems excited about being ring bearer. No indication he’s worried.”

“Well, that’s a good indicator.”

“What did you find out in your sheriffing rounds?”

“Well I learned about Ra-Osiris and the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Which seems like a really bad omen when talking about a Sun-like ball of universal knowledge that burnt out after it blew up.”

“That’s just Chris’s way of delivering things.”

“He was really high. There was laughter.” Jack said. “He mentioned Cleopatra, the alchemist-not the queen, and said she doodled a ouroboros in her philosopher stone notes.”

“And what did you get from that?” Nathan asked. He loved Jack's journeys, he didn't give himself enough credit for them. It's why he gave in on the tour of Greece, because Jack deserved to experience the travel through his eyes, just like he got every day.

“Well, it seems like the Artifact could be the Philosopher's Stone. From what he’s told me, it really hits all the marks. Immortality. Knowledge. Power. ‘All is one’ being the balance of the universe.” 

“Must have been _really_ high not to get excited about that.” Nathan said, impressed. Not that he hadn't done some out of character things for his own Carter.

“He was way more excited about Lexi coming over.” Jack said and poked at his food and knew Nathan was watching and waiting. Knowing he was building up to something. “Brought up our Carter kids pet names, my sister has been oversharing.”

“Well, he has one on me as I never got an explanation for those cute little nicknames. And all this time I thought siblings were supposed to have such hateful names for each other.”

Jack looked up at him and said. “I earned my nickname when she found me in the locker room bathroom having my prostate hit in ways I never considered plausible by an extremely strong gymnast who was using the bathroom stall overhead structure to...hit that spot.”

Nathan raised his eyebrows.

“I wish the nickname was earned by what he was doing swing from the bar, but I made some noises that could not be unheard.” Jack said and sighed. “Apparently she got tired of waiting for a ride home and she got some phenomenal blackmail material for her troubles. I got called ‘Monkey’ to remind me of the information she had on me.”

“Wow.” Nathan said and stopped chewing to think about _that_. 

“Which reminded me of us, and our first time together and how you told me I was better than just a ‘bathroom fuck’.” Jack said. “I was a little overwhelmed at the time and it didn’t stir up old memories, but now I can’t help but wonder why you said _that._ ”

Nathan had been struggling with his feelings of attachment to stories of another timeline, of how he could feel the devastation of the ‘other Nathan’s' last words. Words that haunted that timeline’s Jack, words brought into this timeline by Henry. Words that came so weighted. “There is a possibility that in one of the other timelines, that you did share that with me. That it wasn’t erased, that it’s somewhere in the Artifact just waiting for a connection.”

“Because there might be a timeline that you don’t remember.” Jack said. “Because you fell in love with me in less than two months in the timeline when I died because you wouldn’t let Carlson heal me with the Artifact. Carlson...who also haunts you with his last words.”

“All of that is out of our control.” Nathan said. “We can’t go back and fix something that was already erased, we can’t investigate something that does not exist.”

“But we can ruin our wedding day by worrying about it.” Jack said. “So, maybe we should just ride it out. This feels right, this feels amazing. It seems like things have come _full circle_ , from me coming to your house last year to unveil your truth to sitting here knowing what could come and being forced to accept fate. From your light of knowledge in Alexandria giving you immortality so that you could meet me, here, two thousand years later and we could be together. Then the fake sunlight shows us something right below our feet, right before our wedding. Shaking our very foundation. Nothing good has come in trying to change things. Henry is so traumatized by having to watch Kim die over and over. You’re worried. Maybe the wheels aren't turning in the right direction, it's taking me off course.”

“I know.” Nathan said. “But Kevin isn’t worried.”

“Kevin, who had that formula to stop the Tachyon Accelerator when he shouldn’t have. Kevin’s been time travelling.” Jack reminded him.

“And he’s happy.” Nathan said. “Kevin, who is a genius beyond measure, who understands the Artifact and can communicate with it. He’s happy.”

“I trust the kid.” Jack said and realized he was going to have to accept that it was all he had to go with. Faith in Kevin.

“I…” Nathan looked at him. “Do too.”

“It’s challenging us.” Jack said. “It’s challenging us knowing that we’re afraid of losing everything tomorrow. It’s a threat. And the people we rely on for help, aren’t helping. Henry’s heartbroken and Chris is in love. It’s not about them, though. They haven’t been touched by it like we have, saved by it. Connected.”

“Just burned.” Nathan said. But he had been burned too, physically. He had gotten cocky with his immortality and it reached out and melted his skin off to remind him he was still killable. What did that mean? That he was growing complacent? He had worked his ass off for 2000 damned years and now the Artifact was cracking the whip and tell him to work faster? That could only mean they were running short on time. 

“Is that why you asked Henry to marry us even though he lost Kim? Even though it’s painful as hell to have to stand there and see everything he can’t have?”

“To connect him to the Artifact, through our union.” Nathan said and nodded. “I was not expecting Chris to get connected by banging your sister.”

“I think we need to stop playing this game now.” Jack huffed.

“So what exactly do I have to do to hear these sounds you make when your prostate is nailed in the precise manner, Monkey?” Nathan asked. “And who is this gymnast?”

“The first Olympic medalist I banged, apparently.” Jack said and Nathan smirked at him . “Why were you holding out on telling me _that_?”

“I like your reaction when I drop casual references in the correct environment.” Nathan said and winked. “You. Me. Greece. Honeymoon. Nude beach. ‘Oh, by the way, the last time I was naked here I completely dominated the Olympic games.’”

Yeah, that was exactly how it would go. Leaving him to make a scene on the beach he wasn’t thrilled about being naked on. “Well, consider me distracted.”

“Eat your dinner.” Nathan said and Jack relaxed and started to focus on eating the meal he carefully picked out for them. He knew it was a special meal because Jack was not eating a burger. “I’ll give you your present after we eat.”

“I bet you will.” Jack smirked and gave him a knowing wink.

“Your wedding present is _not_ sex.”

“Fine.” Jack mumbled. “World might end tomorrow, _but fine_.”

“No, I mean…” Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose. Jack managed to clear his mind so easily with the promise of sex. “Alright, come and see it.”

“What?” Jack asked. “Your dick?”

“ _No._ ” Nathan threw his napkin on the table and stood up. “It’s in the garage.”

Jack watched him walk away and realized he was supposed to be following him. He wasn’t sure why his dramatic ass fiancé was being all tame about his wedding present, but Nathan was always a perfectionist about his work. Maybe it wasn’t up to his standard yet? “Is it a benzene ring?”

“ _No._ ” Nathan stopped at the garage door and looked at him. “Why the hell would you bring up Kekule?”

“Did you fuck him?”

“Most _definitely_ not.”

“Did he dream about you fucking him?” Jack asked, because it had to be one of those answers.

Nathan shrugged and went into the garage, turned on the light and walked over to the corner. 

“Dammit.” Jack hissed and went after him and looked around to see if anything was different. No new cars. Nothing hanging on the walls or ceiling. It was colder in here… than usual. ”Did you get me a coffin to sleep in? Like Dracula?”

“ _No._ ” Nathan said and punched his code into a keylock and went into the small store room in the corner. Jack followed and looked around, confused and disappointed. Nathan pointed to the wall of servers. “Do you want to guess?”

Jack looked at the computer parts and then back to him, “An ouroboros program?”

Nathan looked at him shocked. It was really incredible what Jack learned in one afternoon of sheriffing. “Actually...yeah.”

“Really?” Jack replied, equally shocked. “I’m right!?”

“Yeah.”

“Does that leave a bad taste in your mouth?” Jack asked with a twinkle in his eye. “Kinda like…”

Nathan reached out and put his finger on Jack’s lips. “Let’s not talk about your ouroboros blow job right now.”

Jack pulled his finger into his mouth and sucked on it, then let it go. 

Nathan took a deep breath and pointed at the servers. “Not now.”

“Why?” Jack asked and ran his hand over Nathan’s chest. “Is Benzene ring guy watching? Maybe I can give you that ‘Eureka moment’ when I get on my knees and…”

“S.A.R.A.H.” Nathan blurted out.

Jack looked at him, confused as to why he’d mention his house right now. Did he want to go to the bunker and fuck? When they were _in_ his house? Then the wall lit up and spoke and made him jump in front of Nathan to protect him.

“ _Yes, Dr. Stark_?” 

Jack gasped. “Sarah!?”

“ _Hello, Sheriff Carter. Please don’t let me interrupt_.”

It was that slutty hum she had developed whenever she caught him and Nathan together, she had been watching them just now. That meant, “Oh my God, did you move S.A.R.A.H. into _your house_?”

“Surprise.” Nathan said and Jack looked back at him, with adoration in his eyes. 

“You moved her in with us?” Jack was emotional now, it made his throat tighten a little. He was worried about leaving her behind, but knew Nathan would never want to live in the bunker, SMART house or not. To bring along his friend, was making her part of their new family. “Thank you.”

“I know it was the only reason you hesitated to move in with me.” Nathan said and looked at the server wall. “She’s technically in a network right now, able to move between both houses and control them both. My house needs retrofitted to be able to give her control of things like the kitchen and security, but it will come with time. She’s moved in, just isn't in control of as many things as she was.”

The unspoken words were ‘and that will stay that way’ because Nathan knew what happened when the AI got control of everything. “Thank you.”

_“Please turn around and allow me to take a picture to commemorate this event. Our new home!_ ”

Jack turned and looked at the servers and saw a blinking red light that must have been the camera, her eye. 

_“Press the button.”_

Jack frowned. “I’m not sure I want to do that--you're still technically a Fargo.”

“It’s safe.” Nathan affirmed. “Fargo didn’t build this, I did.”

“Okay.” Jack reached out and tapped the button and heard a shutter sound. Then an image came up on the wall of them standing in a server room, in a cold garage, shirts unbuttoned and Nathan looked tired but satisfied. It was casual and beautiful. “To a new beginning.”

* * *

Jack couldn't believe nothing happened. Nothing to stop them from standing at the alter together, not even Nathan. Nathan who had kept him busy being the world's worst groomzilla all damned day, and time flew. Now...they just flew through the wedding ceremony and it was so close to being official.   
  


“I, Nathan Stark, take you Jack Carter, to be my husband. In sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for as long as we both may live.” Nathan slipped the ring on Jack’s finger, a ring he had made of metals he had collected over the years, memories he melted down to make a ring for the man who he wanted to share all those memories with, and more. And somehow, the universe didn't end. _Yet._

“And you, Jack?” Henry asked, hesitantly.

“I…” Jack could see Nathan and Henry both wince, knowing he was going to ‘wing it’. “I spent my day yesterday trying to figure out how I could get here. How I could be so lucky to find my way to your door, your town, you. I realized yesterday when I was chasing answers, that things come full circle. That everyone attributes a different meaning to events and words and that...sometimes we look for reasons things are happening and it distracts from the fact that they are. What I’m trying to say is, that the rings, the circles, the answers always come back to you. You, Nathan Stark. Nevermind what other people see, I know, that you will always and forever be my answer to everything. So I’m really excited to spend all of eternity with you, as your husband.”

Nathan raised his eyebrows. That wasn’t bad at all, in fact it was good.

“You also look fucking amazing in a tux.” Jack said as the crowd laughed and he picked up the ring off the pillow Kevin was hold up for him. Kevin was smiling. It was good. The ring, was made of the Artifact remnant that was left over from it’s destruction. The piece that Henry used to time travel, now crafted into a ring that would go on Nathan’s finger to solidify this timeline. Henry giving up his happiness for theirs, but he begged him to use it. And if anything had given them this opportunity, it was the Artifact so...he took it. And prepared to put it on Nathan’s finger for all eternity. 

Nathan smiled at him and looked to Henry, hoping he would seize the moment to move to the next part of the ceremony before Jack could…

“And I think that I, uh, tend to run around looking for issues. For reasons to be suspicious when things are working out.” Jack suddenly started talking again, words bubbling from his mouth as he rolled the ring around and couldn’t let go of this circle shit. Of this riddle that was the damned Artifact.

“Oh, of course you’re going to keep going.” Nathan mumbled.

“This is important.” Jack said and squeezed his hand. Nathan was trying to rush to the finish before the world could end and this was about their special day. Not some Artifact. “I have looked for the bad, expected the worst in people. Occupational hazard. So when things felt like something between us, I fought you. From the beginning we could have had something and instead I overlooked your incredibly sculpted half naked body and that way you manage to put your shirt on that is downright sinful…”

“Jack,” Nathan gave a warning tone and then sing-songed. “ _This is a wedding_.”

“They know.” Jack ignored that and looked him in the eye. “The thing is , we had _a thing_. From the beginning. It took me long enough to come around to realizing it was _our_ thing, _this_ thing and a _good_ thing. A _great_ thing. And yesterday I tried to look for things that it could be, and today I realized none of that matters. That all the endless loops can overlap and be just our ring. Our wedding ring. Us. Nathan, there is no way, no how, that you and I don’t end up together. In this universe or whatever other universes are out there. Time stopped the first time I looked at you and I have been head over heels in love with you from that very first moment that we met.”

Nathan was speechless.

“Ok, I’m done now.” Jack said and nodded, he slipped the ring on Nathan's finger. “I mean...uh, I take you, Nathan Stark, now and in every timeline you can imagine, to be my husband. Through all the shit we’ve been through and everything coming at us. For as long as we both shall live.” 

Henry jumped at the chance to push things along now that Nathan was in shock and Jack finally landed on the last paragraph of his rambling impromptu essay. “Love is timeless, transcending everything we know, everything we understand, and giving us strength and comfort forever. What is past is now present, and what is present will become your future. That is what love is, never ending.” 

Nathan breathed in and out, feeling like everything was falling away from visual peripherals and the only thing in focus was Jack. Just like when he died by dematerialization and Jack was the last person he saw, as it all faded away to black. But now, there was no fear. There were no regrets. There was only one beautiful, blue eyed man staring back at him with honestly and truth in his eyes. Warmth emanating from his smile. Confidence coming off his entire being. And the circle of his focus closed in to just him as everyone else faded away. Because he was all that mattered. Henry continued but he kept his eyes on Jack, and breathed in that confidence that this was right. 

Henry looked at Jack and Nathan standing before him, a crowd of friends and family behind them. He had been here before, except it was Nathan and Allison in front of him. That timeline's Jack had told him vivid details of his “Groundhog Day” experience and he had shared what he needed to with the couple in front of him now in order to avoid losing Nathan to space time again. The events that lead up to that never happened. The sky did not rip open, this time, and these two were finally able to exchange wedding vows. Nathan wasn’t just getting married again to rectify some wrong, and Jack wasn’t searching for reasons it would go wrong. This was not going to be a bond that anyone, or anything, would break easily. So he smiled, because he knew that things were finally back on course. “So, by the power invested in me, by the state of Oregon, I pronounce you bound in matrimony for as long as you both may live.”

Jack pulled Nathan by his cummerbund into him and kissed him. Nathan’s surprise and joy were evident by the smile as he kissed him back. A year together and it was only the beginning. He couldn’t be more excited by this. Nathan was excited too, as he grabbed him close, despite it being a wedding, and kissed him hard.

Henry was about to step away from the podium, since Nathan slammed Jack into it. But the skies broken open over the table with all the gifts. He was the only one looking behind the crowd, the only one not watching the couple get inappropriate at the alter. Once he was sure the clouds and lighting swirling behind them were not a figment of his imagination, he said, “Oh no, not again.”

Nathan didn’t want to look away, didn’t want to break off the kiss and let go of what could have been his happy ending. He didn’t want to watch it all unravel along with the hope he had of a perfect, long, happy life with Jack Carter. Jack, however, was and always would be, a cop and pried himself away from his lips to find out what hell was breaking loose behind them.

“Is that _a spaceship_?” Jack asked as he hung onto Nathan’s neck, pinned against a podium and with his husband’s hand on his ass holding him up. 

Nathan looked over his shoulder as a _fucking spaceship_ crashed their wedding. _God dammit Eureka!_ “Not mine.”

“I told you they would hide the problems until after we said our vows. Didn’t I? You didn't have to be so mean to everyone, especially today!” Jack asked and made no move to get out of Nathan’s arms.

“You were right.” Nathan smirked. “I knew there was a reason I married you.”

“Tess!” Jack looked over Nathan’s shoulder at Allison’s new red-headed girlfriend who was kinda like a girly version of Nathan. Sassy, sarcastic, a terrible driver. She was here to work on finding the ‘thing’ that might destroy the world. Allison barely had control over GD for an hour before offering her a job, but she seemed cool. From what he could tell she actually had a job trying to talk to aliens, so that seemed the best person to blame. “How the hell did you miss that!? Did you invite them?”

“Me?” Tess yelled back. “ _Am I_ the Astraeus captain? _Am I_ the ground crew chief? _Am I_ operating any of the hundreds of satellites orbiting the earth that GD controls?”

Yeah, girl Nathan. Jack looked to his Nathan and dared him to say the same. “Well?”

“Technically, I’m on vacation and not the captain of a still in fabrication space ship.” He said and narrowed his eyes at Jack. “And the ship being on Earth kinda does fall under ground crew chief, anyway. Right, Henry?”

“I recognize that ship.” Henry said. “I built it.”

“You _did what_?” Jack asked and wondered if this was how they could go about solving the Eureka problems in the future, him hanging onto Nathan, Nathan embracing him like he was ready to dip him in a formal ballroom dance routine. The tux. The tux on Nathan was even better than his suits. “Like when you worked for NASA? Wait...this isn’t how were’ getting to Florida to get on the cruise ship is it? Because it’s definitely still flying even if it’s _in a flying saucer_ , _Nathan._ ”

“Jack, I wouldn’t dare.” Nathan said, feigning innocence.

Henry said in a whisper, “It’s one of ours. I built it.”

“Is this our honeymoon? I don’t want to go to the actual moon, _honey_!” Jack said with a growl. He was not amused if this was Nathan’s attempt to get him to Florida. Nathan was not telling him something and it was definitely related to how they got from Oregon to Florida. Damn him!

“It’s okay.” Nathan whispered, still not letting Jack go. “This is just our normal end of the world Eureka thing, not my way to trick you into flying.”

“So we should…”Jack sighed and let go of Nathan. That was great while it lasted, all ten seconds of it. “Go to work.”

Henry made it to the ship first, not at all faulting Jack and Nathan for trying to cling to a few more seconds of their wedding. He hadn’t seen this ship in years and it made no sense that it would return today. In order to return, especially via the traditional method, it would have set off a million world-wide alarms as it passed satellites in orbit, descended through the atmosphere and got past the EM field surrounding Eureka. All, impossible for the ship he built. So how was it here?

He looked around at the gifts, neatly organized in a pyramid by Lexi Carter who must have heard the story of Alexandria from a high-as-a-kite Christopher. So she made a pyramid out of all the gift boxes and, to Henry’s surprise, the boxes were all smoking. He walked over, noting they were charred in the center. As if, the gifts were used to give the ship a place to land…”Oh.” 

“Oh?” Jack asked as he came over and sniffed at the boxes. “ _Oh_ as in _Fargo_ had something to do with this?”

“No.” Henry said and looked at Nathan. “A catcher’s mitt.”

“Seriously?” Jack turned to Nathan, shocked, and asked. “You’re _for real_ going to join the league?” 

Nathan frowned. Yeah, he loved this man. “A catcher's mitt as in Boson Cloud Exciter, not as in the leather glove for playing baseball.”

“I’m fucking excited.” Jack admitted. “You look amazing squatting behind home plate.”

“For a Faster than Light engine, based upon the Einstein-Grant Bridge device.” Nathan informed him and Jack looked lost. He just shrugged and went with it.

“So, the ship is…” Jack waved at the hovering spaceship like it was just a normal thing to crash a wedding. Which, in this town, it was sort of tame. “A test run of the thing that shoots the Astraeus into orbit?”

They all fell silent as the landing hatch opened and stairs materialized. 

“Or is this like, that _Twilight Zone_ ‘To Serve Man’ episode I’ve been worried about?” Jack asked, referencing his questions about how vampires eat in space. And remembering that episode really clearly.

Henry caught his breath as a figure appeared and descended the stairs. It was unmistakable, it was…”Kim?”

Jack put his hands on his hips and finally looked at Nathan and said, “I give up. I have no fucking clue what’s going on.”

* * *

Jack waited for Nathan as they tried to determine if Kim was real or not. She was real enough for Henry who was in tears most of the way to GD and was holding her hand here in the infirmary. Just like any other day in Eureka....

“Going through the medical records, I can see Kim’s long term exposure to the memory wiping device caused some changes.” Nathan said as he walked around the exam table with his tablet. They rushed the Spaceship Kim to GD to get some answers and he was surprised at what a look at Kim’s medical records told him. He never looked, it wasn’t like there was a body they could autopsy. “Cancerous changes.”

Henry bit his lip. “Oh.”

Jack looked at her, she genuinely seemed like Kim. She talked like Kim. But Kim was dead? Or not, because people got undeaded around here and some were just undead to begin with. So he sat and waited for the science explanation to happen because he genuinely was at a loss.

“I didn’t want to ruin our time together.” Kim apologized to Henry. “I was so angry at what Jason stole from me in the past, that being angry at him for taking my future would only rob us of the present. I made that decision and I don’t regret it.”

“Oh.” Henry said. As far as he could tell this was Kim’s consciousness, but a fabricated body. How that came to be, he wasn’t sure, but she was desperate to explain. “But…”

“Oncology put it at maybe five years.” Kim explained. “We hoped that with Eureka and the advancements we were working on, that perhaps in that time that we could have something to help me but, it never happened.”

Henry took a deep breath. She was talking about _their_ timeline, the time he saved her and lived with her. Except in that timeline, Allison was not the director of medicine. She stepped down to be a physician in town so she could be closer to Jack. She wanted a family, a family practice and the ability to focus purely on her family. Allison Carter was not at GD to push for those breakthroughs and Kim was not going to benefit from them. Kim had accepted her fate and that’s why she was so upset at him for risking everything for their time together. That’s why she wanted him to go back and let her die? Because she was already dead? He started to cry. 

“I’m sorry Henry, I didn’t want you to hold back living because my time was limited.” Kim said. “The Artifact, never killed me. It took my dying body away and put my consciousness somewhere else. Your ship, crafted this body from data and living material and placed my consciousness into it. Using the studies of the vampire serum on the human body, it took the samples from the ship’s genetic materials labs, and grew them into a perfect form. Using the idea of death and rebirth, it gave me a second chance. Using the ouroborus program, it created a digital neural network that was artificial human intelligence, to give the body life. My consciousness was placed into this body and I was able to dream of coming back to Eureka. _To you_.” 

Henry nodded and got up, hugging her. Embracing her as the woman he lost in the body that was everlasting. Everything Jack had found the day before, all the answers he got, were answers as to how Kim _was alive_. Because he refused to bite her and give her everlasting life as a vampire, the Artifact had taken steps to allow her to be reborn, and to bring her full circle back to Eureka. He cried harder, feeling her once again in his arms. He just had to have faith.... 

Nathan left for the outer office, Jack followed. He was finished doing tests on Kim to make sure the body she crafted for herself, made of data...made of observations and the Artifact’s ‘back up’, would be stable. The artifact gave her everlasting life, all powerful knowledge and a second chance. Jack, saw through it, he just didn’t know what he was looking at until it appeared at their wedding. He was comfortable leaving this, and Eureka, and going on their honeymoon. Henry deserved to just enjoy it, without having to have to explain it all. Ally deserved to have to explain it all, because she thought that being head of GD meant making changes she wanted. Ha! Wedding gift confirmed.

“Hey.” Jack said, turning to look back at Henry and Kim. Happy, but confused. “What’s going on?”

“Kim had cancer.” Nathan explained. “The Artifact, took her body because it was dying. Even biting her would have only held the cancer in a moment of pause and continued to keep her in pain. The Artifact….saved her. It it everything you said it was. Everything you uncovered, was right.”

“Go Artifact.” Jack said softly as he realized how this managed to awe Nathan. Nathan who understood everything, didn't see this coming. 

Nathan looked down at his wedding ring. “Well, it could save everyone some trouble by being a little more clear about it’s plans.”

“So she’s the new Library of Alexandria?” Jack asked as he looked at Kim. "She collected data in space, from space time and is Kim Anderson's mind so....she's like SuperKim."

“It would appear so.” Nathan said. “However the fact that we all must work together to use the information, prevents one person from being too powerful.”

“Oh who’s fault is that, Nathan?” Jack teased. “Mr. I dream of world domination while the Benzene guy dreams about getting swallowed by you?”

“Of the Artifact didn’t want us to make perfect humans it should not have left the recipe in the cookbooks.” Nathan smirked. 

“Really bad analogy there. _To Serve Man_ …”

“We’re vampires, Jack. Some of us _have_ eaten people.”

“Am I glad I am part of the new age.” Jack put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder and smiled at Kim. “I’m sorry the flashy thing gave her cancer, and the artifact killed her to save you, and that it crashed our wedding, and used our wedding registry to compile weird Eureka gifts that could make a weird spaceship catching mitt, but I’m really glad she’s back. For Henry.”

“So, how about you and I go on our honeymoon?” Nathan asked.

“How are we getting there?” Jack asked.

“Well, it’s a good thing you’ve seen a preview of how FTL drives work, because that is how we’re getting to Florida.”

“Like hell we are.” Jack countered.

“I’ll suck your bite.” Nathan promised. 

“No.” Jack said. 

“I’ll let you bite me.” Nathan said and Jack’s eyes lit up. 

“Fuck me, okay.” Jack nodded enthusiastically. “Let’s get out of here and start life anew as a couple.”

“That’s all it took? Maybe we can take a plane…”

“We’re leaving _as fast as possible_ before something else happens.” Jack said and pulled him out of the infirmary, feeling his teeth emerge just at the thought of Nathan exposing his neck for him. Of course he was already out of his tuxedo jacket, tie loose around his neck and kinda flaunting it…holy shit he married this man!

“Are we even going to make it down to the lab?” Nathan asked, feeling Jack’s heart rate and arousal. It made his own body pulse in response.

“Shhhh.” Jack said and wiped some blood from his mouth. “I’m trying to not start the numbing salvia.”

“Oh, you want this _to hurt._ ” Nathan hummed.

Jack felt a pulse, Nathan’s pulse as he said those words with his sexy drawl. “What lab?”

“Let me lead, since I don’t get my wedding dance.” Nathan took his hand and rushed them down the hallway, Jack's heart rate and breathing erratic and excited. He hoped they’d get to the lab before Jack bit him. It was pushing it, but they made it. They were excited like school kids, or apparently Varsity athletes in a public bathroom. As soon as the door closed, Nathan got pinned to the wall and Jack was on him, breath hot and eyes wild with downright feral excitement to sink his teeth into him. His voice was raspy when he said, “ _Bite me. Do it_.”

Jack kissed him first, wrapping his hands in Nathan’s shirt as he did. Letting Nathan taste his blood from his bleeding gums, letting him feel how powerful his desire was to have him. To taste him, to savor him. Then he pulled away and looked at his equally aroused eyes and took his time, breathing hot breaths over Nathan’s exposed neck, pushing aside his shirt with his nose, looking for just the right spot to claim him.

“Jack, please.” Nathan put his hands on his hips, begging. Needing to feel him, wanting to surrender to him and have his mark on his neck. He reached up, with a shaking hand and poised over Jack’s neck, wanting to touch his bite when he finally sank his teeth into him.

Jack felt Nathan’s hand, it’s proximity to his own bite, his blood felt like it was boiling now. Full circle, the connection, it was screaming at him, burning him like an all encompassing flame. Biting Nathan and having Nathan touch his bite, the power of that thought was enough to make him almost cum standing there, so he kissed Nathan lightly on the spot he wanted to plunge into, just to focus. Enjoy. Savor. _Bite_. 

And Jack’s teeth were into his neck and Nathan’s knees almost gave out on him, his heart and lungs screamed in protest like he was drowning, and a moan erupted from his very core that was downright animalistic. Jack pinned him against the wall, power now in his hands as he bit and tasted his blood, power needed to keep his body upright and not sink to the floor in pure, delectable, ecstasy.

So this was what the legends were made of, and they didn’t even come close to the real thing. Nathan was delicious, tasted of the sweetest and most potent, intoxicating flavor he had ever experienced. Want poured into his moth as he sucked, desire flushed through his system as he sank his teeth in deeper and wanting more. Wanting more of that sound Nathan made as he cried out in pleasure and then he felt like the word lit up so bright that it blinded his very soul as Nathan’s hand wrapped around his own bite. Connecting them, connecting them on some powerful godlike level that two human beings could never achieve. But vampires? Lovers? Husbands? This was _them_ entwined on a level that pushed them beyond anything comprehensible. This was them, and Jack let Nathan sink to the floor, going with him, his own body feeling like it was going to overload and explode if he didn’t break the circuit, the circle, of current flowing through them….but desire wanting it to never end. 

Finally Jack let go, pulled his teeth out and broke that transcendent connection. Nathan was breathing hard, like he had just run for his life. He was sitting on the ground, Jack straddling him and in his lap, Jack licking his bite. Jack lapping at the blood there. Jack’s heart rate undistinguishable from his, fully synchronized, beat for beat. He thought of nothing except for the feeling of Jack’s tongue dancing around the puncture wounds, the feeling of his skin already healing. The feeling of something greater than an orgasm numbing his body and extremities. 

"Ok, I can see why you ate people." Jack said, for the first time in a year absolutely overwhelmed with the feeling of being a fucking vampire. 

"Jack.." Nathan said, feeling like even his lips and mouth were numb, "It's never that good."

"Does that happen...every time?" Jack asked.

"I never let anyone bite me." Nathan admitted.

"So do we want to find out here or on our honeymoon?" Jack asked, eyes bright, eager for more.

"Boat leaves..." Nathan cleared his throat. "We need to get there before the boat leaves."

"Then we can.."

"Do this again."

Jack looked at the bite, vanishing. Healing. Tasting Nathan's blood on his lips and thinking about the blood rushing elsewhere in his body. "I'm really hard. What happens if we do this and fuck?"

"Let's find out." Nathan said and pulled him down to a kiss. "On the boat."

"Fine." Jack said and smiled at him. "We married."

"Yeah, and the universe didn't implode."

"I'm going to implode." Jack groaned and stood up. "Faster than light better mean fast." 

Nathan let him lift him off the floor and he kissed him once he was upright. "Sit down. Savor me. Close your eyes. And don't say anything inappropriate because the FTL drive doesn't land us un a catcher's mitt on the boat, it's at NASA."

"You look well fucked already."

"Good." Nathan said and shoved him in the chair and buckled him in, then sat beside him and punched in some codes to start them on their journey as a couple. He looked over and smiled, "See you around, Jack."

It was said with love, a smirk and a lick of the lips as they blinked out of Eureka. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY DONE!
> 
> Thanks for staying with me on the ride.


End file.
